[Rajiv Gandhi assassination] Supreme Court orders premature release of all six convicts including Nalini, P Ravichandran

The Supreme Court, on Friday, ordered the premature release from prison of six Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts Nalini Sriharan, P Ravichandran, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Santhan and Murugan who are serving life sentence in the case. .A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna passed the order after noting that the convicts displayed good conduct in the prison and had been behind bars for a very long period. "The conduct of the present appellants/applicants has been found to be satisfactory. Most of them are suffering from various ailments. All of them have undertaken various studies during the period of incarceration", the Court noted.It, therefore, allowed their plea and directed their release."We, therefore, direct that all the appellants/applicants be deemed to have served their respective sentences in connection with Crime No. 329 of 1991. The appellants/applicants are, therefore, directed to be set at liberty forthwith, if not required in any other case. The appeals are disposed of in the above terms", the order states..Initially, two convicts, Nalini and Ravichandran approached the Court placing reliance on a recent order passed by the top court releasing another convict in the case - AG Perarivalan. In May this year, the apex court had evoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to release Perarivalan based on a recommendation given by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018.Subsequently, Nalini and Ravichandran approached Madras High Court in June seeking the same relief. However, the High Court refused to entertain the same, stating that it did not have the same powers as the Supreme Court under article 142 of the Indian Constitution and had asked the petitioners to move the Supreme Court.Nalini and Ravichandran then moved the top court. Later, the remaining four convicts also filed similar pleas before the top court. All of them were heard together before the Court passed its order today directing their release. .Note: This story was updated at 4.15 pm on November 11, 2022. The intial version of the story said that two convicts were ordered to be released instead of six. .[Read order]