K GURUSWAMY Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prisoners concerned in these petitions were verdicted by Court to die and are awaiting execution. Originally these writ petitions were listed along with several other similar writ petitions which we have disposed of by a common order dated 15-12-1989. These writ petitions were kept in abeyance, since the petitioners had desired to implead the Central Government as a party, for consideration of one of their pleas raised in each one of these petitions. The disposals, of the earlier writ petitions, were based mainly on the long delay of the Executive, in disposing of the mercy petitions of those petitioners, who had claimed to have suffered mental agony of living, under the shadow of death for a long long period.

(2.) In all these writ petitions the arguments advanced were two-fold. One was that there was long delay in the disposal of the mercy petitions preferred by them to the Governor of Tamil Nadu and the President of India and the second was that though they had addressed their mercy petitions to the President of India, the Governor had chosen to consider them and forward the same to the President with his opinion, thereby preventing an independent consideration by the President, on the inherent merits of their plea for mercy. In W.P. No. 2320 of 1987 it was further argued, that the mercy petition had not yet been disposed of by the President of India and that alone will be sufficient to hold in favour of the petitioner therein.

(3.) W.P. Nos. 7825, 7874 and 7875 of 1988 : -These three writ petitions relate to Nataraya Gounder and Nattudurai alias Natarayan, who were accused in S.C. No. 10 of 1986 on the file of the Principal Sessions Judge, Erode and hence facts which are the same can now be briefly stated. Initially in W.P. No. 7825 of 1988 Subramani alias Subramaniam, an accused in S.C. No.5 of 1983 on the file of the Court of Session, Periyar Division at Erode, was also shown as a condemned prisoner, but as far as his case was concerned, we have disposed of, by our oreder dated 15- 12- 1989, while the consideration, of the cases of Nataraya Gounder and Nattudurai alias Natarayan, was kept in abeyance. Nattudurai alias Natarayan, A-2 in S.C. No. 10 of 1986 is the son of Nataraya Gounder shown as A- I in the same case. W. P. No.7825 of 1988 was filed by one K. M. Subramaniam, a practicing Advocate of this Court and a staunch member in Kongu Vellala Community Association at Madras on behalf of the prisoners, who are also stated to belong to the same community. W.P. No.7874 of 1988 and W.P No. 7875 of 1988 have been filed on behalf of the same prisoners by the Secretary, Legal Aid Centre, High Court, Madras. There were five other accused in S.C. 10/86, of whom Achi Ammal (A-3), the wife of the first accused Nataraya Gounder and mother of Nattudurai alias Natarayan was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.