Governor has no authority to transfer mercy plea to President

May 5, 2022

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Supreme Court disagreed with the Central government’s suggestion that the court should wait till the President took a call on Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A.G. Perarivalan’s mercy plea referred to him by the Tamil Nadu Governor for a decision.

Under Article 161 of the Constitution, the Governor was bound by the aid and advice given by the Tamil Nadu Council of Ministers in September 2018 to the Governor to release Perarivalan, who has already served over 30 years of his life sentence. The Governor prima facie had no authority to transfer the mercy plea to the President. There was no role for the President here under the Constitution.

Article 161 mentions the Pardoning Power of the Governor. When a convict has committed an offence against state law, the concerned punishment can be granted the pardon, reprieve, respite and remission by the Governor of the state.

Governor’s Pardoning Power

Similar to the Pardoning power of the president , the pardoning power of the Governor grants the following:

Pardon
Respite
Remission
Reprieve
Commute

Pardoning Powers of the Governor
Pardon	When the Governor pardons, both the sentence and the conviction of the convict completely absolve the sentences, punishments and disqualifications Note: He can pardon prisoners, including death row ones. He cannot pardon the punishment by court-martial The sovereign power of a Governor to pardon a prisoner under Article 161 is actually exercised by the State government and not the Governor on his own.
Respite	When the Governor uses his pardoning power of ‘Respite’, he chooses to award a lesser sentence in place of one originally awarded to the convict. For example, due to some special fact, such as the physical disability of a convict or the pregnancy of a woman offender, the President can use this power.
Reprieve	When the Governor chooses the pardoning power of ‘Reprieve’; he stays the execution of a sentence (especially that of death) for a temporary period. By doing this, he enables the convict to have time to seek pardon or commutation from him
Remit	When the President chooses the pardoning power of Remit, he acts to reduce the period of the sentence, but the character of the sentence remains the same. For example, a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for two years may be remitted to rigorous imprisonment for one year but the imprisonment remains rigorous
Commute	The governor can commute the punishment or sentence of any person convicted of any offence against state law, or he can commute a death sentence