The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu Government not to release the other four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. An order with regard to three convicts, whose death sentence was commuted to life, was earlier stayed by Court. The two petitions filed by Centre will now be heard together on March 6.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam granted stay on the release of the four convicts — Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravi Chandran — on an appeal moved by Centre challenging the hurriedly taken decision by the Jayalalithaa Government to free the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, just a day after SC had commuted death sentence of three of the convicts - Murugan, Santhan, and Arivu. The Court had commuted death penalty on the ground of unreasonable 11-year delay on part of the executive to process their mercy petitions.

Issuing notice to the State and jail authorities to file response, the bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana, ordered status quo till further orders while issuing notice to the four convicts as well.

On February 20, when the Court first ordered stay on the release of three convicts, it had decided to examine the “procedural lapses” alleged by the Centre. 

The State, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told the Court that the state was well within its rights to order remission as the seven convicts in question had already undergone 20 years of imprisonment. Centre disputed over the state's claim on the ground that offences in the case fell under special laws governed by the Union list. Under the procedure for remission in Section 432 and 433 of Criminal Procedure Code, the concerned government has to even obtain consent of the trial court which decided the case.