After striking a severe blow to the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to make appointment of judges in the higher judiciary transparent, the Supreme Court has now told the political executive not to interfere in granting remission or commuting sentences which attract capital punishment or life imprisonment.
A Constitution bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu (on the eve of his retirement on December 2) and Justices Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Pinkai Chandra Ghose was seized of the issue whether the Tamil Nadu government had correctly exercised the power of remission to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins two years after an apex court judgment that commuted the death sentence of several convicts on the ground of undue delay in disposing of their mercy petitions by the executive. They were awarded the death penalty which was commuted to imprisonment for life.