The Madras High Court said that it cannot follow the same criteria adopted by the Supreme Court.
Chennai:
The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to approach the Supreme Court for relief.
The question was raised by the first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharat Chakraborty when a writ petition by Nalini came up for further hearing today.
Originally, Nalini (now on parole granted by the Tamil Nadu government) had filed a petition requesting the court to order her release even without the consent of the state governor.
Now that the Supreme Court had granted bail to AG Perarivalan, another convict in the same case, his counsel urged the bench to apply the same criteria and grant bail to Nalini.
Observing that the apex court is the highest judicial body in the country and the High Court cannot follow the same criteria adopted by the former, the bench asked the counsel under what legal provision the High Court can grant bail to a convict. The bench advised the lawyer to approach the Supreme Court with the bail plea.
With regard to the main plea for release from the case, the bench posted the matter for March 24.
The Supreme Court had on March 9 granted bail to Perarivalan, who is serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, noting that he has been in jail for more than 30 years and has been in jail and during his parole period. is conduct. been satisfactory.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu by a female suicide bomber, identified at an election rally as Dhanu.
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