Govt yet to receive report on Nalini's release

The Tamil Nadu Government today sought time to inform the Madras High Court on the Prison Advisory Board's report on premature release of Nalini, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, stating it was yet to receive it.

The Tamil Nadu Government on Monday sought time to inform the Madras High Court on the Prison Advisory Board's report on premature release of Nalini, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, stating it was yet to receive it.

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Advocate General PS Raman informed the court that the government was yet to receive the Board's report and sought further time to submit it.

The government's plea was made when a petition filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy challenging a single Judge's September 2008 order directing the state government to reconstitute the Board for hearing Nalini's plea for premature release came up for hearing.

Making it clear that it would not allow further adjournments, a division bench of justices Elipe Dharma Rao and K K Sasidharan, posted the petition for hearing to March 10.

The board, headed by Vellore District Collector, was constituted by the government following a direction by the High Court on a plea by Nalini, imprisoned for the last 19 years.

The board had recently heard the pleas of Nalini and three other convicts, who have also sought premature release.

All the four were sentenced to death by a special court in January 1998 and the Supreme Court had upheld the sentence.

However, Nalini's death penalty was commuted to life by the state on April 24, 2000, after the then Governor allowed her clemency petition.