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The Madras High Court on Tuesday called for a copy of the order of the Tada Trial Court in Poonamallee, which had passed an order on January 28, 1998, imposing a death sentence on all the accused in the Former PM Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

A bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy while hearing Nalini’s petition seeking premature release, directed the Registry to call for the original judgment of the Tada trial court.

Advocate General (AG), R Shanmugasundaram, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner referred to certain paragraphs of the judgment of the Apex court in the case of State, through Superintendent of Police, CBI/SIT v. Nalini and others, (1999) to show the acquittal of the petitioner S.Nalini from the offense under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987.

It was further stated by AG that the table/schedule referred by the Apex Court in its judgment is 'not correct'.

The bench opined “rather, it is in conflict with the judgment of the appellate court and for that, he read certain paragraphs”.

“We cannot draw an inference that the table/schedule given by the Apex Court in the judgment to be incorrect, unless the original judgment of the trial Court is looked into”, court stated.

Hence, “We direct the Registry to call for the original judgment of the trial Court or digitized copy from the Digitization Centre of this Court in the case of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination and place on record when the matter next appears” court-ordered.

Recently on April 22, 2022, the court had directed the Advocate General to ascertain whether Nalini was punished for the offenses under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act [TADA], and the submissions made were made thereto.

Earlier on April 7, 2022, R Shanmugasundaram (AG) submitted to the bench that the convict's files seeking premature release had been forwarded to the then Governor in January 2021.

The submission made by the AG was in response to a query raised by the bench on March 30, 2022.

The further hearing on the matter will take place on June 6, 2022.

Cases: W.P.No.7615 of 2022 and W.M.P.SR.No.28812 of 2022 and W.P.(MD). No.16658 of 2020