NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea to transfer out of the Madras High Court the appeals of three Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts challenging their death penalty.State’s Additional Advocate General Gurukrishna Kumar opposed the petition filed by one I K K Venkat claiming that the atmosphere in Madras HC was too “vitiated and surcharged” to hold a free and fair hearing.The convicts, Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan had earlier sought commutation of the death penalty imposed on them in the Madras HC pointing out the 11-year delay in disposing of their mercy petitions by the President.Gurukrishna Kumar said that the allegation that the atmosphere is not conducive for a proper hearing in the Madras HC is not correct. He also questioned the locus standi of the petitioner Venkat who sought a direction from the apex court for transfer of the case out of the Madras High Court to the Supreme Court or any other High Court in the country. Eminent criminal lawyer and former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the three convicts, also opposed the petition seeking transfer of the case saying that Article 139 A of the Constitution gives power only to the Attorney General of India or the aggrieved parties to file a petition for transfer and not to a stranger. Hence, the petition should be dismissed, he argued. Senior counsel L Nandakumar, appearing for Venkat, however claimed that free and fair hearing of the proceedings cannot be held in the Madras High Court. He contented that on August 30, when the Madras High Court took up the matter of the convicts, about 5,000 people gathered at the premises and raised slogans disturbing the proceedings. He also alleged that the State government and other political leaders were also directly or indirectly supporting the cause of the convicts. A Bench comprising Justices G S S Signhvi and Justice S J Mukhopadhaya asked Tamil Nadu government to file its affidavit within a week and adjourned the matter for further hearing to October 19. “Though the request made by the State Additional Advocate General is unreasonable, we are granting time for filing the counter affidavit,” the Bench said. The Madras High Court had earlier stayed the hanging of the three convicts and issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu governments.
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