September 6, 2025

The Madras High Court is stirring up a legal storm! A Division Bench of two judges—Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan—has now asked a larger Bench to settle a hot question: Is the Governor bound to follow the advice of the Council of Ministers when it comes to early release or remission of convicts, or can the Governor use his own judgment? This spicy referral came while hearing eight petitions where convicts wanted premature release. The State government had recommended releasing them, but the Governor said no! This clash exposed conflicting judgments from two earlier Division Benches. First up, a fiery verdict by Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam in October 2024 ruled the Governor must follow the State Cabinet's word. They said, "The power under Article 161 can be exercised by the State government, not by the Governor on his own... It would be insufficient to reject an application for premature release on the ground that the offence committed is heinous in nature when the prisoner had undergone more than 20 years of imprisonment." Talk about strict but fair! But wait! Another Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and R. Poornima in November 2024 waved a different flag. They said the Governor can ignore the Council if the Ministers miss important facts. The case involved a convict, Murugan, whose release was recommended even though police charged the wrong Section of the law. The Governor saw the mistake and stopped the release. The court upheld the Governor's discretion. When lawyers shouted about a 2023 Supreme Court ruling (A.G. Perarivalan’s case) saying the Governor must obey the Cabinet, Justice Swaminathan reminded everyone about a 2004 Constitution Bench decision allowing Governors to act alone if ministerial advice is irrational. Faced with this legal tug-of-war, Justice Ramesh admitted, "There seems to be an apparent conflict between the views taken by the two Division Benches. As a Bench of equal strength, we are not in a position to ignore the judgment passed by another Division Bench. Hence, we feel it is necessary that this issue should be resolved by a larger Bench of this court." The Chief Justice will now pick judges to untangle this constitutional knot. So, the big question remains: Does the Governor dance to the tune of the State Ministers, or can they hit their own beat when freeing convicts early? The larger Bench will soon bring us the final verdict in this gripping legal drama.

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Tags: Madras high court, Governor's discretion, Council of ministers, Remission of sentence, Premature release, Article 161,