The Supreme Court on Friday urged the Centre to decide on the eight-year-old mercy plea filed by a death row convict in two weeks. The convict, Balwant Singh Rajoana, has been in jail for over 25 years after being convicted of triggering a bomb blast that killed then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995.
Rajoana approached the Supreme Court last year complaining about a delay on the part of the central government to process his mercy petition, which he filed on March 25, 2012 with the President. The Supreme Court on December 4 asked the Centre about the delay and was informed that the proposal for commutation of his sentence was yet to be processed.
The ministry of home affairs said that since other co-accused involved in the crime with Rajoana had filed appeals which were pending before the apex court, a decision on Rajoana’s mercy petition was put on hold. Rajoana had not filed any appeal challenging his death sentence before the apex court.
On Friday, additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj told a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde that the file had been processed by the home ministry. “We have processed the file from our end. It has been sent to the competent authority to take a decision.”
The bench, also comprising justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, told the law officer: “Give him (Rajoana) some relief before January 26. It is a good day to act. If possible, pass an order before January 25.” The bench has posted the matter for hearing on January 25.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rajoana, said: “The delay of eight years in processing the mercy petition is fatal to death sentence. This is enough for commutation of death sentence to life as decided by the Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan case in 2014.”
In that judgment given by a Constitution Bench, undue, inordinate delay in deciding mercy petitions had been held to be grounds to commute punishment of death row convicts.
Rajoana was sentenced to death on July 27, 2007, when the trial court found him and his associate Jagtar Singh Hawara guilty of killing Beant Singh by triggering a bomb blast at the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat on August 31, 1995. Later, on October 12, 2010, the Punjab and Haryana high court confirmed Rajoana’s death penalty.
In his petition filed through advocate Rupesh Kumar, Rajoana informed the Court that on September 27, 2019, the Centre had written a letter to the Punjab chief secretary saying that Rajoana’s mercy plea was to be processed under Article 72 of the Constitution coinciding with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism. When the direction was not heeded, Rajoana approached apex court to remind the Centre of its resolve.
