December 2, 2015: The Supreme Court today ruled that the states cannot exercise its statutory power to remit sentences of convicts, tried under central laws by agencies like CBI, without consulting the Union government. It said that though the states have power to grant remission but they cannot exercise it “suo motu”.
The ruling came while the apex court was dealing with the constitutional issues that had arisen out of Tamil Nadu government’s decision to set free the convicts in the Gandhi assassination case. The Court today made it clear that convicts in the case will languish in jail with the state having no say in granting remission to them. The bench referred to a three-judge bench the factual and legal aspects of grant of remission to convicts in this case.
A five-judges constitution bench, headed by outgoing Chief Justice H L Dattu, also said that Centre will have primacy in granting remission to convicts “in cases registered under central law and probed by central agencies like CBI”
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