Referring the matter to the constitution bench, the court April 25 had said: "The issue of such a nature has been raised for the first time in this court, which has wide ramification in determining the scope of application of power of remission by the executives -- both the central government and the state."
Referring the matter to the constitution bench, the court April 25 said the constitution bench will also decide: "whether once power of remission under Article 72 (Power of President to grant pardon or remission of sentence) or 161 (Power of governor to grant pardon or remission of sentence) or by this court exercising constitutional power under Article 32 is exercised, is there any scope for further consideration for remission by the executive."
The court also said the constitution bench will also address which is the appropriate government under the code of criminal procedure -- whether it is the state government or the central government or both. "Whether there can be two appropriate governments in a given case under Section 432(7) (appropriate government with power to suspend or remit sentences) of the code?
Besides this, the court framed six more question to be adjudicated by the constitution bench which included whether life imprisonment means imprisonment for rest of the life or whether a convict undergoing life imprisonment has a right to claim remission.
Coupled with this, the court asked the constitution bench to decide whether there can be a special category wherein after death penalty has been commuted to life imprisonment, such a convict is put beyond the applicability of remission of sentence and he will remain behind bars in excess of life term of 14 years.
The apex court by its Feb 18 verdict commuted the death sentence of the three conspirators -- V. Sriharan alias Murugan, A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu and T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan -- into life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay of 11 long years in deciding their mercy petitions by the President.
The day after the apex court verdict commuting the death sentence of three conspirators into life imprisonment, the Tamil Nadu government Feb 19, decided to grant remission and release all the seven convicts undergoing jail term.
The other four seeking to be released included Jayakumar, Nalini and Ravichandran.
