With India locked in a face-off with the United States over the arrest of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam on Thursday said such things should not happen to high-level officials.
President Pratibha Patil has rejected the clemency petitions of three killers of Rajiv Gandhi whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Saturday requested Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to take efforts for cancelling the death sentence awarded to three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday welcomed the Madras high court order staying the execution of the three convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and adoption of a resolution by the state assembly appealing to the President to reconsider their mercy pleas.
Granting the interim stay, a bench comprising justices C Nagappan and M Sathayanarayanan observed there had been a delay of over 11 years in the disposal of the mercy petitions filed by the convicts to the President seeking clemency.
The three -- Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan-- lodged in Vellore Jail, were scheduled to be hanged on September 9.
Claiming that Tamils will be happy if the three Rajiv killers are spared the gallows, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Monday "fervently" asked for a cancellation of their death sentence.
Making a suo moto statement in the Assembly, Jayalalithaa said, "I don't have any power to alter the Presidential order rejecting the mercy petitions of the three," -- Murugan, Perarivalan and Santhan.
With President Pratibha Patil rejecting the clemency petitions of three killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the mother of one of them on Friday demanded a 'fresh and transparent trial' and claimed her son was not at all connected with it.
The Centre is likely to tell the Madras high court that no time limit is prescribed for the president to take a decision on mercy petition of any death row convict.
Nalini Sreehari, the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, is on the verge of getting a degree in Masters in Computer Applications from the Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Whichever way the verdict goes, it will be a win-win for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa ahead of the assembly election next year. A favourable verdict, it will be a boost for her because she took the decision to release the convicts. She will once again try to usurp the Tamil card and use it to silence her political rivals. If the verdict goes against her, she can still claim the moral high ground. R Ramasubramanian explains.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he was sad that 7 people convicted of killing his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, were being released by the Tamil Nadu government.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea moved by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassin Nalini Sriharan seeking early release from prison.
Four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case lodged in the Central Prison here were on Wednesday overwhelmed by a sense of jubilation on hearing about the Tamil Nadu Government's decision to set them free.
The government on Thursday said that it is examining the Tamil Nadu government's decision to remit the sentence of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case but made it clear that abiding by Supreme Court's order on the issue is its constitutional responsibility.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review its verdict commuting death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment and dismissed Centre's review petition.
The fate of three death row convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will be sealed on Tuesday when the Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on their plea for commutation of their sentence to life imprisonment on ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea.
The convicts are V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, A G Perarivalan alias Arivu, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the curative petition of the Centre filed against the commutation of death penalty into life imprisonment of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, granting a fresh lease of life to them.
The Tamil Nadu government on Friday told the Madras high court that it was yet to take a decision on the premature release of Nalini Sriharan, the life convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case since her case with other co-convicts are pending before the Supreme Court.
The condemned prisoners convicted in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case deserve death sentence, the Supreme Court said on Thursday and refused to go into the merit of the conviction while hearing their plea on commuting death penalty to life due to delay in deciding their mercy plea.
'A precedent in the Rajv killers' plea for freedom may flow from slain brigand Veerappan's 2000 demand for the release of 109 associates languishing in prisons in Karnataka for him to release abducted Kannada matinee icon, the late Rajkumar.' 'Acting on a petition filed by the father of a Karnataka cadre IPS officer killed by Veerappan, the Supreme Court reversed the orders of lower court orders in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.' 'If democratically-elected governments give an impression to the citizens of this country of being law-breakers, would it not breed contempt for the law? Would it not invite citizens to become a law unto themselves?' the Supreme Court had observed on the occasion, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred until March 26 the hearing on the Centre's plea against the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release seven prisoners convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
After staying release of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the Tamil Nadu government from letting out four more convicts in the case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday told the Madras high court that fresh probe into Rajiv Gandhi assassination case could be not done based "only on allegations without fresh materials supporting them."
Nalini had submitted that she had spent 25 years in jail though the legal requirement was only 20 years to be eligible for early release.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a plea by S Nalini, undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, challenging the law mandating Centre's approval for her release and that of six other convicts.
S Nalini, who has been undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has approached the Supreme Court seeking to declare as "null and void" a provision in law mandating Tamil Nadu government to consult the Centre before releasing seven life term convicts in the case.
He was seen as one of former PM Rao's trusted aides and advisers.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar dismissed the pleas on the ground of delay in filing the petition and also on merit.
The Centre on Tuesday opposed in the Supreme Court the plea of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case seeking the commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment.
After having secured a stay on release of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Centre on Monday moved the apex court to prevent implementation of Tamil Nadu government's decision to set free four other convicts serving life imprisonment in the case.
The Centre on Thursday moved the Supreme Court, seeking a review of its judgment commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, on the ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's decision for early release of Rajiv Gandhi's killers invited a sharp reaction from the Congress, which termed it as "irresponsible, perverse and populist".
In a major relief to three condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of 11 years delay in deciding their mercy plea by the Centre.
'Afzal Guru was convicted of supporting the attack on India's Parliament. The Supreme Court said "the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded" to Guru.' 'Till we can think up similar justifications for hanging non-Muslims, I do not think we can delink terrorism from religion in our minds,' argues Aakar Patel.
'I got to know the men accused of the blasts regularly meeting them in court and jail. Some of them, like Dutt, are back in jail. Others, like Mohammed Jindran, a quiet and well spoken middle class man, were killed. And now of course Yakub is ready to be hanged. The first in the case to do so,' says Aakar Patel.
The Congress party's campaign for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament on Wednesday came to a naught as the minister made a spirited defence.
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