IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

RESERVED ON : 06.06.2022

DELIVERED ON : 17.06.2022

CORAM :

THE HON'BLE MR.MUNISHWAR NATH BHANDARI, CHIEF JUSTICE

AND

THE HON'BLE MRS.JUSTICE N.MALA

W.P.(MD) No.16658 of 2020

AND WMP.(MD).4300 of 2022

R.P.Ravichandran

.. Petitioner

Vs

1.The State of Tamil Nadu,

rep. by the Chief Secretary,

Fort St. George,

Chennai-09.

2.Home Secretary,

Home (Prison) Department,

Fort St. George,

Chennai-09.

3.The ADGP of Prison,

Headquarters Egmore,

Chennai-08.

4.The Superintendent,

Central Prison, Madurai-16.

.. Respondents

Prayer: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of

India praying for a writ of mandamus directing the respondents

to implement the State's release decision of the petitioner

namely Ravi @ Ravichandran (C.P.No.4967) who has undergone

nearly 29 years of actual imprisonment and 37 years of

imprisonment including remission forthwith or within the

reasonable time fixed by this Court.

https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/

For the Petitioner

: Mr.K.Samidurai

For the Respondents

: Mr.R.Shunmugasundaram

Advocate-General

Mr.P.Muthukumar

State Government Pleader

and

Ms.A.G.Shakeenaa

for respondent Nos.1 and 2

: Mr.Hasan Mohammed Jinnah

State Public Prosecutor

Mr.Muniyapparaj

Addl. Public Prosecutor

Mr.S.Santosh

Govt. Advocate (Crl. Side)

for respondent Nos.3 and 4

COMMON ORDER

THE CHIEF JUSTICE

This writ petition has been filed to direct the respondents

to implement the State's decision to release the petitioner.

2. The petitioner is a convict in the criminal case

registered for the assassination of Mr.Rajiv Gandhi, former

Prime Minister of India, on the night of 21.5.1991 along with 15

others, including 9 police personnel. During the course of

occurrence, 43 persons suffered grievous or simple injuries.

The petitioner and other accused were sentenced to death by the

Presiding Judge, Designated Court No.1, Poonamallee (Additional

City Civil and Sessions Court, Chennai), by order dated

28.1.1998.

3. By judgment dated 11.5.1999 in Death Reference Case No.1

of 1998 along with Criminal Appeal Nos.321 to 325 of 1998 [State

v. Nalini and others, (1999) 5 SCC 253], the Apex Court

altered the death sentence imposed on the petitioner to

imprisonment for life.

4. Pursuant to the direction of the Apex Court in W.P.(Crl.)

No.48 of 2014 with Crl. Misc. Petition Nos.6280-6281 of 2017,

dated 6.9.2018, the Government of Tamil Nadu considered the

petition of the life convict A.G.Perarivalan under Article 161

of the Constitution of India in the Cabinet meeting held on

9.9.2018 along with other similar petitions of other six life

https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/

convicts, including the present petitioner, and resolved to

grant remission and sent the recommendation to the Governor of

Tamil Nadu for his approval on 11.9.2018. However, till date no

order has been passed on the recommendation and, hence, this

writ petition.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that once the

Council of Ministers took a resolution on 9.9.2018 for grant of

remission to the petitioner, the Governor of the State should

have acted on the advice, but the decision of the Council of

Ministers has not been given effect to and, therefore, the

petitioner was left with no other option but to prefer this writ

petition to seek release of the petitioner without the

authorisation of the Governor of the State.

6. Giving the background of the case, it is submitted that

the petitioner is now convict for the offence under Section 302

of the Indian Penal Code (for brevity, “the IPC”), which

otherwise remains in the executive domain of the State and,

therefore, the Governor ought to have authorised the resolution

of the Council of Ministers to extend the remission, instead of

sending the matter to t