Upset by the reckless grant of pardon to life convicts in rarest of rare crimes, the Supreme Court on Thursday felt that time has come to curb this practice and introduce a process by which such decisions have to first pass judicial scrutiny.
The idea to introduce curbs on the pardon power available to Centre and States under Sections 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure came during hearing of appeal filed by Centre challenging Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to release the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“We must keep in mind the society’s cry for justice in ‘rarest of rare’ cases,” said a Bench of Chief Justice Hl Dattu, Justices FM Ibrahim Kalifulla, PC Ghose, AM Sapre and UU lalit. Tamil Nadu argued that curbs cannot be placed on remission power of States as convicts had a statutory right of remission.
The Bench said that past experience suggested that in rarest of rare crimes where the death sentence of convicts was commuted to life by the Supreme Court, they were released en masse by State Governments on occasions of festival days or birthdays of Chief Minister or important leaders. “We are alive to the convict’s right to remission. But it has to be balanced with the society’s cry for justice” the Bench said.
The court hinted that its final judgement on the States’ power to grant remission will include a restriction asking States to seek the view of the presiding judge of the trial court that awarded death sentence. This opinion on the desirability of releasing the prisoner would be open to challenge in the apex court.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi who argued for Tamil Nadu said that the court’s suggestion amounted to judicial legislation and it was for Parliament to change the law in the CrPC as it exists.