Will SC set Rajiv Gandhi killers free on CJ's last working day?

The seven men convicted of the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could walk free today, with the Supreme Court set to deliver its verdict on the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release them on 18 February. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam will deliver its verdict on the Tamil Nadu government’s decision at 10.30 am. This will be the Chief Justice’s last working day, he retires on 26 April. The Tamil Nadu government made the controversial decision to release all the convicts in the case, following a Supreme Court decision to commute the death sentence for three of them, factoring in an 11-year delay in deciding their mercy petitions. The three whose sentences were commuted were: V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivalan and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan. The other four were serving life sentences. ( Read more about them here ) [caption id=“attachment_1496517” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] All eyes will be on the Supreme Court decision: AFP[/caption] Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa took the position that this ruling empowered her government to release all of the convicted in the case from jail. Following the controversial decision, the Centre moved the Supreme Court which stayed the release of the convicts, citing procedural lapses on the part of the state. The Tamil Nadu government’s action prompted strong reactions, including from the usually mild mannered Manmohan Singh, who released a statement saying, “The release of the killers of a former prime minister of India and our great leader, as well as several other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice”. Commenting soon after the verdict, Firstpost editor R Jagannathan noted that the Tamil Nadu government’s decision showed exactly how the apex court’s verdict on commuting death sentences would become a political moral hazard for the country. He pointed out that among other things, “in future politicians will lead agitations to ensure that a death penalty is never executed in time so that ultimately the plea of inordinate delay can be used to subvert the verdict”. ( Read the full article here ) And apart from the legal implications,  Firstpost editor Sandip Roy noted that freeing Rajiv Gandhi’s killers was an extremely state centric action on the part of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, which would have an adverse impact on her national ambitions: The rise of the power of regional parties has meant that a Jayalalithaa is so secure in how her decision will play out in Tamil Nadu she feels no need to even explain it to a baffled nation. How her decision reverberates on television screens and newspapers across the country seems to matter little in Poes Garden. But such nonchalance may prove expensive in the long run for a woman who is being projected by her party as an excellent prime ministerial candidate. Dilli door ast, indeed, when you are chief minister of Tamil Nadu. But will Delhi remain forever distant for a leader who sets free the killers of a former Prime Minister? If it was a poll gimmick, then the Tamil Nadu government’s decision would have had its impact one way or the other, given that the state went to polls on Thursday. Given that the relevance of the decision has thus run its course politically, will Jayalalithaa now turn around and act more like a national leader than a regional one if the Supreme Court overturns her decision?