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The three condemned prisoners, facing the gallows for their involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, on Tuesday got a breather with the Madras high court granting interim stay on the execution of their death sentence on September 9.

After hearing arguments from senior counsel Ram Jethmalani for Murugan, R. Vaigai, counsel for Santhan and senior counsel Colin Gonsalves for Perarivalan, in packed court hall4, a division bench, comprising Justice C.Nagappan and Justice M.Sathyanarayanan, granted the interim injunction and ordered notice, returnable in eight weeks, to the Union and state governments.

The order said, “The main contention raised in all the petitions is the delay of 11 years and four months in disposal of the mercy petitions submitted by the petitioners, seeking commutation of death sentence imposed on them. Additional solicitor general M. Ravindran takes notice for the Union government and advocate general A. Navaneethakrishnan takes notice for the state government, inspector general of prisons, Chennai, and the superintendent, central prison, Vellore. Since the matter involves consideration of question of law, the petitions are admitted and there shall be an order of interim injunction. Counter by eight weeks.” Mr Jethmalani said unless the delay in disposing of the mercy petitions was properly explained or justified, it makes death penalty illegal and unconstitutional. He also cited various judgments of the SC and HCs to back his case.

The state government has no role to play, he added. Ms Vaigai and Mr Gonsalves also highlighted the issue of delay. The House passed a resolution unanimously to urge the President to reconsider her rejection of the mercy petitions Jayalalithaa reiterated that the chief minister and governor had no power to review the petitions after they are rejected by the President.