2ND LEAD

New Delhi challenges Chief Justice of India over commutation of death sentence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 February 2014, 19:56 GMT]
The New Delhi Establishment on Thursday challenged the decision of a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, P. Sathasivam, commuting the death sentences of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, into life imprisonment. In a hurriedly-filed petition, the Centre contended the three-judge bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh, did not consider the merits of the case and also ventured into the domain of the government by commuting the death sentence in the case, PTI reported on Thursday.

The review petition of New Delhi was filed hours after the top court blocked the decision of Tamil Nadu government to release Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.

Earlier, at an urgent hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court observed: “Commutation of death sentence into life cannot automatically lead to release.”

The decision of Tamil Nadu government to release them within 3 days if the Centre was not responding, was based on the premises that the convicted have already served more than 20 years imprisonment meant for life sentence.

Prisons in India come under the jurisdiction of states.

In challenging the CJI of India over the commutation of death sentences, New Delhi is learning from genocidal Colombo and is following its footsteps in subjugating the judiciary, political observers commented.

New Delhi is in partnership with Colombo for a larger purpose of establishing a paradigm in South Asia, i.e., re-enacting the genocidal experiments of Sri Lanka in India. Peoples all over India should carefully understand the designs that Sri Lanka is the test case for them, more than Pakistan or any other neighbour, especially in deciding their own human rights future, the observers further said.

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