Nalini Sriharan to move Madras HC, says governor can't sit on cabinet resolution

CHENNAI: Nalini Sriharan, the country's longest serving woman convict undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, will move the Madras high court against Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit, saying he had been delaying countersigning the state cabinet's proposal to release her. Nalini, in the petition which is to be filed before a vacation bench of the high court on Tuesday, stated that it would amount to "failure of the constitutional machinery" in TN.
The TN cabinet had passed a resolution to release the seven life convicts - A G Perarivalan, Sriharan (alias) Murugan, his wife Nalini Sriharan, P Ravichandran, Shanthan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar - in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on September 9, 2018, under Article 161 of the Constitution. The recommendations were forwarded to the governor the next day. The seven have been in prison for more than 27 years.
"The writ petition will be filed to indicate the failure of the governor to act upon the cabinet's recommendation. It is against the Constitution," said Nalini's counsel M Radhakrishnan.
Citing the five-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court's order in Maru Ram vs Union of India, Radhakrishnan said the bench had stated that the power under Article 72 and 161 of the Constitution could be exercised by the Centre and State, not by the President or governor.
"The advice of the council of TN ministers binds the head of the state (governor) and he ought to have, immediately on receipt of the advice, countersigned the proposal to release the petitioner (Nalini)," he said, quoting the writ petition. His failure to do so within a reasonable time would amount to violation of the SC ruling in Maru Ram's case, he said.