A.G. PERARIVALAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) In view of the Appellant having undergone a sentence of 23 years, the State of Tamil Nadu proposed remission of the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on the Appellant to the Government of India, requesting its views within three days. The said proposal was made in view of Sec. 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (for short, CrPC), according to which the Central Government was required to be consulted, as the case had been investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Union of India immediately filed criminal miscellaneous petitions in the cases disposed of by this Court on 18/2/2014, commuting the sentence imposed on the Appellant to life imprisonment. In these petitions, the Central Government sought a direction to the State of Tamil Nadu not to release the Appellant. An order of status quo was passed by this Court in the said criminal miscellaneous petitions on 20/2/2014. The Review Petitions filed by the Union of India against the judgment dtd. 18/2/2014 commuting the sentence of the Appellant, were dismissed.

(3.) On 24/2/2014, the Union of India filed a writ petition for quashing the communication from the State of Tamil Nadu dtd. 19/2/2014 and its decision to consider commutation / remission of the sentence imposed on the Appellant and some others. The writ petition was referred to a Constitution Bench of this Court by order dtd. 25/4/2014, after formulating seven questions for consideration. By a judgment dtd. 2/12/2015, this Court answered the questions that were framed for consideration in Union of India v. Sriharan (2016) 7 SCC 1.