The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court it has sought the Centre's permission for allowing Nalini and her husband Sriharan, life convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to make video calls to their family members in Sri Lanka and London as it involved the Ministry of External Affairs.
Making the submission before a bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and V M Velumani, Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan also said the state government cannot arrive at a decision since there was no precedent to rely upon in permitting a prisoner to make video calls to a foreign nation.
When the matter came up through virtual hearing, the public prosecutor said the state government was ready to comply with the directions of the court. However, it cannot take any decision on its own since the issue involved the MEA and security of the country was the prime importance, he said.
Responding, the bench said let us set the precedent if none is available and on its own impleaded the Ministry of External Affairs as a party respondent and adjourned the hearing to July 15.
It was hearing a petition by Nalini's mother seeking a direction to permit her daughter and her husband to speak to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka and sister-in-law in London daily for ten minutes.
Earlier, counsel for the petitioner M Radhakrishnan submitted in many instances foreign prisoners lodged in Tamil Nadu jails had been permitted to make calls to their country.
Countering it, Natarajan said a prisoner, either foreigner or Indian, was not allowed to make overseas WhatsApp call or any normal calls.
Their interview right was restricted to only within the country as per Tamil Nadu prison manual.
Besides Nalini and her husband, the others convicted in the case are A G Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Robert Pyas and all are serving life imprisonment for their role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 by an LTTE suicide-bomber at nearby Sriperumbudur.
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