New Delhi: The Centre on Monday (November 25) sought time from the Supreme Court to decide the mercy petition of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was awarded death sentence in the assassination case of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, saying there is a sensitivity involved in the matter and some agencies will have to be consulted.
A bench comprising Justice BR Gavai, Justice PK Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan, which was hearing a plea filed by Rajoana seeking directions to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment due to the “inordinate delay” in deciding his mercy petition, said it would hear the matter after four weeks.
‘There is a sensitivity involved in the matter’, Centre told apex court
“There is a sensitivity involved in the matter. Some agencies will have to be consulted,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj, who also appeared before the court, said that the issue was being reviewed by the government and some more inputs were required in the matter, as the issue was sensitive,
Apex court put its order on hold last week
The top court had last week put its order on hold directing President Droupadi Murmu’s secretary to place before her for consideration Rajoana’s mercy petition after Mehta had urged the top court bench that the order, which was passed earlier in the day, should not be given effect as there were “sensitivities” involved in the issue. Mehta, while urging the bench to hear the matter on last Friday, had also told the bench that the file was with the home ministry and not the President. The bench had then agreed to hear the matter on November 25.
Rajoana was awarded death sentence by the trial court
Beant Singh, the then Punjab chief minister, and 16 others were killed in a blast in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. The trial court in 2007 convicted Rajoana and 14 others in the case and awarded Rajoana death sentence, which was later confirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The top court earlier last year had refused to commute Rajoana’s death sentence and had said that the competent authority could deal with his mercy plea.
