Notice to govt on Nalini’s habeas corpus plea

In her habeas corpus petition, Nalini submitted that she was being illegally detained as the Governor of Tamil Nadu had not acted on the September 9, 2018 advice of the Council of Ministers to release her.

The division bench, comprising Justices R Subbiah and R Pongiappan, before which the plea came up, issued notice to the Additional Public Prosecutor and posted the matter for further hearing to January 7, 2020.

Nalini referred to the Maru Rams case in 1980, in which a Constitution bench held that the advice of the State government under Article 161 of the Constitution would be binding on the head of the State. She contended that as the power under Article 161 (power of the Governor to grant pardons and suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases), has already been exercised by Tamil Nadu, the Governor has no discretion, but to act on the September 2018 advice of the Council of Ministers.

Earlier this year, Nalini had moved the court, seeking a direction to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to release all the seven convicts as per the decision of the Tamil Nadu government Cabinet in 2018, recommending their release under Article 161 of the Constitution. However, the high court had dismissed her petition.

Nalini and her husband Murugan, besides five other convicts, are undergoing life imprisonment in the case related to the assassination of ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in Sriperumbudur near here on May 21, 1991.