JOIN USWhile MDMK leader Vaiko and PMK chief S Ramadoss also reiterated their appeal to the chief minister to send out a strong message to the Centre, the Madras High Court will take up the convicts’ petitions challenging the death row on Tuesday. “I don't have the power to commute the death sentence of the three (Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan). They should appeal to the President again,” Jayalalitha told the state Assembly in the wake of mounting pressure from various political parties seeking her intervention.
It was under an earlier DMK regime (1996-2001) that the then governor in April 2000 had, on the then State Cabinet’s advice, first rejected the mercy pleas of the convicts, she pointed out.
The DMK cabinet then had said Nalini, the fourth convict sentenced to death in the case, alone could be shown leniency on compassionate grounds and her sentence commuted to life so that her daughter (Haridhra) might not be orphaned. The power to grant clemency resided only with the governor and the President of India under the Constitution, she said.
Once the President rejected the pleas, as conveyed by the Union Home Ministry on August 12, Jayalalitha said, “all future applications in this regard (to reconsider under change of circumstances) should be addressed to and will be dealt with by the President of India.”