SC Grants A Week's Time To TN Guv To Decide On Perarivalan's Release

Based on the reply petition filed by the Central Government on Thursday, the Supreme Court has granted a week's time for the Tamil Nadu Governor to decide on the state government's recommendation to release A.G. Perarivalan, one of the convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Earlier on Thursday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court that the Tamil Nadu Governor will decide, in three-four days, on the state government's recommendation to release 7 convicts in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination including A.G. Perarivalan.

Mehta, representing the Governor, had submitted before a bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao that a decision will be taken as per the Constitution, on the remission of the sentence by exercising discretionary power under Article 161 within the next 3-4 days.

While the state government's recommendation to the Governor for pardon to all the convicts has been pending for over two years, Perarivalan had approached the apex court to decide on the issue at the earliest. Convicts V. Sriharan alias Murugan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santham, Perarivalan alias Arivu, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, P. Ravichandran and Nalini have been serving imprisonment for over 25 years.