New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (January 20) asked the Centre to take a decision by March 18 on the mercy petition of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was awarded capital punishment in the assassination case of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
A bench comprising Justice BR Gavai, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan said this while hearing Rajoana’s plea for directions to the respondent authorities to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment due to the “inordinate delay” in deciding his mercy petition.
We are granting you time by way of a last chance, Apex Court told Centre
“We are granting you time by way of a last chance. Either you take a decision (on mercy petition) or otherwise we will hear it on merits,” the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.
Mehta, while referring to the sensitivity involved in the matter and requesting the bench to grant six weeks time, told the bench that Rajoana’s mercy petition was under consideration.
The counsel representing Rajoana told the bench that he has spent around 29 years in jail.
“We will hear it on merits on March 18, By then, if you can take a decision, well and good. Either way you decide it so that it could facilitate us. Otherwise we will hear it (Rajoana’s plea seeking directions to commute death sentence) on merits,” the bench said.
Sensitivity involved in the matter, Centre earlier told top court
The Centre had on November 25 last year told the top court that there is a sensitivity involved in the matter and some agencies needed to be consulted and had sought time from the court.
The apex court earlier on November 18 last year put its order on hold directing President Droupadi Murmu’s secretary to place before her for consideration mercy petition of Rajoana after the Centre urged the apex court bench that the order of the top court, which was passed earlier in the day, should not be given effect as there were “sensitivities” involved in the issue.
Rajoana was awarded death sentence by the trial court
The then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and 16 other persons were killed in a blast in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. The trial court convicted Rajoana and 14 others in the case in 2007 and awarded Rajoana death sentence, which was later confirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The top court earlier on May 3, 2023 refused to commute Rajoana’s death sentence and had said that the competent authority could deal with his mercy plea.
