The Supreme Court will hear the plea of death-row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, guilty in the 1995 assassination of Punjab CM Beant Singh, on October 28. He seeks commutation of his death sentence to life due to delays in his mercy petition.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the plea of death-row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, held guilty of the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment, be taken up on October 28.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Aparesh Kumar Singh said the matter to be placed at the top of the board on October 28. Rajoana’s counsel pointed out the repeated adjournments in the case and pressed for an early hearing.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Union government, sought a short adjournment in the matter. Allowing the request, the bench directed that the plea be listed on October 28 at the top of the board.
Grounds for Commutation Plea
Rajoana, in his plea, sought commutation of his death sentence on the grounds of delay in considering the mercy petition pending before the President of India since 2012. Rajoana has been in jail for more than 29 years, of which he has been on death row for over 17 years.
The apex court said in 2023 that the authorities should take a call on the mercy plea. On January 20, 2024, the top court had asked the Centre to take a decision on his mercy petition after the Centre sought more time to decide the mercy petition.
Case History and Government’s Stance
The Centre had maintained that the matter is “sensitive” as it’s related to the murder of a sitting Chief Minister and sought time to decide the mercy petition, saying the government is considering it. Rajoana, a sympathiser of the Babbar Khalsa militant group, sought the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment in connection with his role in the assassination of Beant Singh.
Rajoana sought commutation of the death sentence on the grounds of ‘extraordinary’ and ‘inordinate delay’ in deciding his mercy petition, which remains pending before the President of India. The petition sought consequential release on the grounds that he has undergone a total sentence of almost 29 years, of which 17 years have been served as a death row convict in an 8” x 10” capital punishment cell, including 2.5 years in solitary confinement.
The convict, Rajoana, was sentenced to death for the murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who died in a bomb explosion in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. The Centre had decided on September 27, 2019, to commute the death penalty of Rajoana to a life sentence on the special occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. However, the decision is yet to be implemented.
In 2020, Rajoana filed a petition seeking the commutation of the death penalty. The apex court had then asked the Central government to take a call with respect to the mercy petition. In May 2023, the top court declined to commute the death penalty but directed that the mercy petition be decided by a competent authority in due course of time. It noted the stand of the MHA to defer the decision on Rajoana’s mercy petition on the ground of national security and the law and order situation.
A Chandigarh court had, on July 27, 2007, awarded a death sentence to Rajoana, which was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 12, 2010. Rajoana has not filed an appeal against the decision of the High Court. Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012; however, the execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, by the then Central government after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) — a Sikh religious body– filed a mercy petition with the President. (ANI)
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