CHENNAI: The three convicts facing gallows in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on September 9 got a fresh lease of life after the Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed their execution for eight weeks. A division bench comprising Justice C Nagappan and Justice M Sathyanarayanan granted the interim injunction while admitting the writ petitions from Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan challenging the August 12 order of the President rejecting their clemency petition. The main point raised in the petitions was the delay of 11 years and four months in deciding on the mercy pleas from the petitioners. The bench said writ petitions were admitted as the matter involved “consideration of the question of law”. Counter-affidavits are to be filed by eight weeks, the bench added in its order, after hearing arguments by noted lawyers Ram Jethmalani, Colin Gonfales and R Vaigai.Jethmalani pointed out that the mercy petitions had been sent to the President on April 26, 2000. However, it was rejected on August 12 this year and the same was communicated to the TN government on August 27. The noted lawyer quoted various judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, which showed that the delay could be a sole ground for commutation of death sentence. Referring to the SC ruling in Chinnappa Reddy case, he said that unless the delay was properly justified, the death penalty was illegal. The undue delay violated Article 21 of the Constitution, which enshrined protection to life and personal liberty. Vaigai and Colin also argued that the delay made the proposed execution unconstitutional. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during an election rally at Sriperumpudur on May 21, 1991 by an LTTE suicide bomber. Several political leaders and activists have been holding protests in the State over the past few days seeking commutation of the death penalty.
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