Rajoana mercy plea: Either you decide by March 18 or we will hear it on merits, SC tells Centre
As the mercy petition of Beant Singh assassination case convict Balwant Singh Rajoana continues to hang fire, the Supreme Court on Monday set March 18 as the deadline for the Centre to take a call on the contentious issue, failing which it would proceed to decide the matter on merits.
It had said that if Rajoana’s mercy petition was not decided within two weeks, it would consider Rajoana’s prayer for interim relief, ie, releasing him for a few months, pending a final decision on his mercy petition.
Earlier, the matter was adjourned so as to enable the Centre to take instruction from the office of the President as to within how much period the mercy petition of the petitioner would be decided.
Convicted of assassinating Beant Singh in 1995, Rajoana (57) -- a former Punjab Police constable -- has been in jail for more than 28 years, awaiting his execution. The former Punjab chief minister and 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special court. His mercy petition has been hanging fire for more than 12 years.
Earlier, the top court had expressed displeasure over the Centre remaining unrepresented in the case, saying the Special Bench was constituted for this purpose only and that it had deferred hearing on the last occasion only because the Centre had sought time.
The Bench had questioned the state of Punjab for saying that it had no role in this case. The Punjab Government said a notice was issued to it only because the petitioner was in a jail in Punjab.
On May 3, 2023, the top court had refused to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment and asked the Centre to take decision on his mercy plea “as and when it is deemed necessary”.
More than 16 months after refusing to commute the death penalty of Rajoana, the Supreme Court had on September 25 agreed to re-examine the issue afresh. It had asked the Centre and the Punjab government to respond to his fresh petition for commutation of his death penalty on the grounds that the Centre has failed to take a decision on his March 25, 2012, mercy petition till date.
