The case relating to release of killers of the former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi will be heard on 15th July 2015 by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, as notified by the Supreme Court registry on 15th May 2015 (see here).
It is pertinent to mention that the Central Government had earlier challenged the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to release the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, by moving a substantive writ petition before the Supreme Court. This was done after the Tamil Nadu Government had passed a resolution to set all the seven convicts free in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Prior to that, the Supreme Court had commuted the death sentence to the life term for the three convicts, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, after noting that there was inexplicable delay in deciding their mercy petitions by the President of India.
It is noteworthy that after hearing the above writ petition filed by the Central Government, last year on 25 April 2015, a 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of the then Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N.V. Ramana, had referred the matter of release of the killers of Shri Rajiv Gandhi to a Constitution bench of Supreme Court to decide whether the Central Government or the Tamil Nadu government had the authority to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case after remission of their jail terms. This 3-judge decision is available for download from here.
Subsequently, this matter came up before a Constitution bench of 5-judges of the Supreme Court, comprising of the then Chief Justice R.M. Loadha, Justices Jagdish Singh Khehar, J. Chelameswar, A.K. Sikri and Rohinton Fali Nariman, on 9 July 2014, when in view of the importance of the issue involved, the Supreme Court decided to issue notice all the States (see here).
Accordingly, now the matter is coming up before the Supreme Court on 15 July 2015 for an authoritative decision by a Constitution.
