VARIATH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This purports to be an appeal against an order of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Trichur, holding that the powers of suspension, remission or commutation of death sentence in respect of any person who may have been or is thereafter sentenced to death for capital offence committed within the territory of Cochin reserved in the Maharaja of Cochin under Art.21 of the Covenant entered into by the Rulers of Travancore and Cochin for the formation of the United State of Travancore and Cochin (hereinafter referred to as the Covenant) did not outlive the passing of the Constitution of India. In the order impugned before us the learned Judge sets out the circumstances under which he happened to make that order as follows:-

(2.) In vacating the order staying execution of the death sentence the learned Judge observes:-

(3.) We are in full agreement with this view. It was as an attribute of sovereignity that the Princely Order in India used to exercise the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence, and when the sovereignity no longer vests in the Princely Order but has devolved or has been assumed by the people of India it is idle to think that the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence still inheres in the Princely Order. The Criminal Procedure Codes of Cochin and Travancore expressly provided that nothing contained in the said Codes shall be deemed to interfere with the right of the respective Maharajas to grant pardons, reprieves, or remissions of punishment. Notwithstanding the integration of the two States of Travancore and Cochin Art.21 of the Covenant retained in the Maharaja of Cochin the powers of suspension, remission or commutation of death sentences passed in respect of offences committed in the territory of Cochin, but those powers cannot survive the passing of the Constitution of India, after which no power of Sovereignity continues to vest in the members of the Princely Order.