On Monday, the Supreme Court provided the Union government an additional four weeks to resolve the pending mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
The extension comes amid the Centre’s request for more time to gather inputs from agencies due to the sensitive nature of the case.
Justice BR Gavai, heading a Special Bench that included Justices PK Mishra and KV Viswanathan, granted the deferral after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta highlighted the complexity of the situation.
This development follows the Bench’s earlier directive on 18 November, urging President Droupadi Murmu to consider the plea within two weeks.
Centre Seeks More Time
Solicitor General Mehta, in an urgent submission, clarified that critical files regarding the mercy petition were still under review by the Union Home Ministry and had yet to reach the President’s Secretariat.
Emphasizing the case’s sensitivity, Mehta requested that no hasty orders be passed. In light of this, the Court refrained from uploading its earlier order.
A Decade-Long Wait For Decision
The mercy petition, filed in 2012 by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Rajoana’s behalf, has remained unresolved for over 12 years. Rajoana, however, never filed a petition personally.
The delay prompted Rajoana to challenge the prolonged inaction, seeking commutation of his death sentence.
Previously, in May 2023, the Supreme Court had declined to intervene in the matter, stating that decisions on mercy pleas fall within the executive’s purview.
The Court reiterated that the competent authority should address the petition when deemed appropriate.
The 1995 Bomb Blast & Legal Proceedings
Officials convicted Rajoana for his role in the bomb blast that killed Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, along with 16 others, in August 1995.
The attack, which also left a dozen people injured, was part of a larger conspiracy involving Rajoana and several co-accused individuals.
After his arrest on 27 January 1996, authorities tried Rajoana alongside eight other conspirators.
In 2007, a trial court sentenced Rajoana to death, along with his co-accused Jagtar Singh Hawara and others.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the death sentence in December 2010 but commuted Hawara’s sentence to life imprisonment.
Rajoana, however, did not appeal the decision, and his case remained largely stagnant in the judicial process until his mercy plea was eventually submitted.
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