The Supreme Court today restrained all states from exercising power of remission for releasing convicts from jail who are serving life sentence. A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha issued notices to all state governments to file their response whether the Centre's nod was needed for releasing life convicts prematurely, in cases prosecuted by central agencies like CBI. The Court in an interim order asked their response by July 18 so that the matter can be taken up for hearing on July 22.

The issue of remission was referred to the Constitution Bench after the Centre had challenged the Tamil Nadu government's decision to remit the sentences of all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The court had on February 20 stayed the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release three convicts.