In Brief
A.G. Perarivalan, convicted in the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, challenged the Governor's referral of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet's remission recommendation to the President of India. The Supreme Court held that the Governor must act on the binding advice of the State Cabinet regarding Article 161 remission powers and cannot refer recommendations to the President. Absent express conferment of executive power on the Union, state courts' sentences fall under state jurisdiction. Given Perarivalan's 32 years of incarceration (including 16 on death row), good conduct, education, chronic illness, and the unexplained two-and-a-half year delay, the Court deemed him to have served his sentence and released him.
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