P. Sathasivam

Justice Sathasivam authored several path-breaking judgments including the Reliance Gas Judgment (May 2010) where he observed that "in a national democracy like ours, the national assets belong to the people" and "the government owns such assets for the purposes of developing them in the interests of the people".[11]

He also delivered the verdict in the controversial triple-murder case of Stains and upheld the conviction of Dara Singh.[12] On 19 April 2010, he delivered the judgement in the Jessica Lal murder case of 29 April 1999.[13] Along with Justice B. S. Chauhan, Sathasivam delivered the judgement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, sentencing Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt to five years' imprisonment under the Arms Act. Dutt was asked to serve out the remainder of his sentence. According to The Hindu, "In a number of judgements, he [Sathasivam] cautioned the courts against awarding lesser sentence in crimes against women and children and showing undue sympathy towards the accused by altering the sentence to the extent of period already undergone."[5]

In January 2014, a three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice of India Palanisamy Sathasivam commuted sentences of 15 death-row convicts, ruling that the "inordinate and inexplicable delay is a ground for commuting death penalty to life sentence".[14][15] Supreme Court of India ruled that delays ranging from seven to 11 years in the disposal of mercy pleas are grounds for clemency.[16] The same panel also passed a set of guidelines for the execution of a death row convict, which includes a 14-day gap from the receipt of communication of the rejection of first mercy petition to the scheduled execution date, after going through the Shatrughan Chouhan vs Union of India case.[17][18][19]