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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear the mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi's killers. It transferred the pleas from the Madras high court. The Supreme Court had rejected their mercy pleas last August but convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan had sought a stay on their execution on the ground that the President had taken 11 years in deciding their mercy pleas.
MDMK chief Vaiko, who has been fighting to save the three convicts, said he would continue with his efforts. "There is no political interference in Tamil Nadu. I will continue my efforts to save the three,'' he said.
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy too welcomed the Supreme Court decision, but wanted the death penalty awarded to them to be executed at the earliest.
He said in a statement issued here on Tuesday that he had decided to seek implead himself in the case in Supreme Court to oppose any further leniency to the convicts who came to India to carry out the assassination. "They must be given death penalty at the earliest,'' he said.
A bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi directed that their petitions, pending with the Madras high court, be sent to it and listed the case for hearing on July 10. The court passed the order on a petition by one LK Venkat seeking transfer of their pleas out of Tamil Nadu on his fears that the free and fair hearings would not possible in the state due to the surcharged atmosphere, favouring the death row convicts.
The Tamil Nadu government had on October 10, 2011, opposed the plea to shift the case out of the Madras high court, denying the allegations that the atmosphere in the state was too "vitiated and surcharged'' to hold a free and fair hearing in the case.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the three death row convicts, too had opposed the transfer plea on the ground that Article 139A (relating to transfer of certain cases) gives power only to the Attorney General or the aggrieved parties to file a petition for transfer.
Venkat's counsel had, however, submitted that a free and fair hearing of the proceedings could not be held in the Madras high court owing to the "surcharged, hostile and vitiated'' atmosphere prevailing there.
On a petition by the three death row convicts, the Madras high court had earlier stayed their hanging and had issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government. The three convicts had challenged the death sentence awarded to them before the high court, notwithstanding the fact that it had been upheld earlier by the apex court.
http://articles.economictimes.india...ws/31538239_1_mercy-plea-killers-rajiv-gandhi
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