REGENT COMPUTRONICS PVT. LTD.

UNION OF INDIA Appellant

V/S

V. Sriharan @ Murugan Respondents

Referred Judgements :-

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner has challenged the letter dated 19.02.2014 issued by the Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu to the Secretary, Government of India wherein the State of Tamil Nadu proposed to remit the sentence of life imprisonment and to release the respondent Nos. 1 to 7 in the Writ Petition who were convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. As far as respondent Nos. 1 to 3 are concerned, originally they were imposed with the sentence of death. In the judgment reported as V. Sriharan alias Murugan v. Union of India & Ors., 2014 4 SCC 242, the sentence of death was commuted by this Court. Immediately thereafter, the impugned letter came to be issued by the State of Tamil Nadu which gave rise for the filing of the present Writ Petition. While dealing with the said Writ Petition, the learned Judges thought it fit to refer seven questions for consideration by the Constitution Bench in the judgment - Union of India v. V. Sriharan @ Murugan & Ors., 2014 11 SCC 1 and that is how this Writ Petition has now been placed before us. In paragraph 52, the questions have been framed for consideration by this Bench. The said paragraph reads as under:

(2.) It was felt that the questions raised were of utmost critical concern for the whole of the country, as the decision on the questions would determine the procedure for awarding sentence in criminal justice system. When we refer to the questions as mentioned in paragraph 52 and when we heard the learned Solicitor General for the petitioner and the counsel who appeared for the State of Tamil Nadu as well as respondent Nos. 1 to 7, we find that the following issues arise for our consideration:

(3.) On the question of maintainability of the Writ Petition by the Union of India, according to learned Solicitor General, the same cannot be permitted to be raised in this Reference since the said question was not raised and considered in the order of Reference reported as Union of India v. V. Sriharan alias Murugan & Ors. , and that when notice was issued in the Writ Petition to all the States on 09.07.2014 then also this question was not considered, that the scheme of Code of Criminal Procedure was to protect the interest of victims at the hands of accused which onerous responsibility is cast on the agency of the Central Government, namely, the CBI which took over the investigation on the very next day of the crime and, therefore, the Union of India has every locus to file the writ petition, that since the issue raised in the Writ Petition cannot be worked out by way of suit under Article 131 of the Constitution since the accused are private parties, Writ Petition is the only remedy available, that after the questions of general importance are answered, the individual cases will go before the Regular Benches and, therefore, the Union of India is only concerned about the questions of general importance and lastly if Union of India is held to be the Appropriate Government in a case of this nature, then the State will be denuded of all powers under Sections 432/433 Code of Criminal Procedure and consequently any attempted exercise will fall to the ground.

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UNION OF INDIA Vs. V. SRIHARAN @ MURUGAN

Referred Judgements :-

JUDGEMENT

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