Nalini, who is serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, may soon get a chance to argue in person her pending demand for a six-month parole to make arrangements for her daughter’s marriage. Her daughter, who was born in jail, has completed her higher studies and lives with her grandparents abroad. Nalini is also preparing to file a writ petition, seeking the court’s direction to the Governor to approve a state cabinet decision for the release of all seven convicts in the assassination case. On Tuesday, Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to explain why she be not permitted to appear in person to argue the parole petition. “We cannot deny her right to appear in person to argue her case,” the division bench of Justice M M Sundaresh and M Nirmal Kumar said and asked the state government to respond on June 18. The court has also said special arrangements can be made for her appearance, if necessary, with regard to transportation and security while escorting her to the court from Vellore Central prison. Her husband Murugan alias Sriharan is lodged in the same prison. Her plea said she, as a life convict, is entitled to a one-month leave once in two years and that she had never availed that ordinary leave in her 27-year-long incarceration. She moved the court after her representation on February 25 and her mother’s similar representation on March 22 were not considered by the state authorities. Nalini was initially sentenced to death, but the Tamil Nadu government commuted it to life imprisonment in 2000. In her writ petition, she has noted that after her death sentence was commuted, about 3,700 life convicts who served more than 10 years of imprisonment or even lesser have been released by the government. “My request to the state for premature release under 1994 scheme of premature release of life convicts was cleared by the council of ministers and on September 9, 2018, the council advised the Governor to release me and other six life convicts in the case. But it has been over six months and the decision of the state still remains unimplemented.” Her lawyer M Radhakrishnan cited the 1981 Maru Ram Vs Union of India case order authored by late Supreme Court judge V R Krishna Iyer and said that the state cabinet’s decision with regard to release of convicts is to be cleared by the Governor without exercising discretionary powers.
