New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Center to file its statement within two weeks on an affidavit by Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination case of then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment due to delay in granting him mercy.
Rajoana has been imprisoned for over 29 years, of which he has been on death row for over 15 years.
“Why have you not filed counter affidavit till now? a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi asked the counsel appearing for the Centre.
The lawyer said that they want to put some documents before the court in a sealed cover.
“You file your counter affidavit otherwise his (Rajoana) allegations are uncontested,” the bench said, adding, “You file your affidavit whatever you want to say.”
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rajoana, said the mercy plea filed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on behalf of the petitioner in March 2012 is still pending.
He said that the apex court in 2023 had said that the authorities should take a mercy call.
Rohatgi referred to the apex court’s order of September 24 last year, which said that any further request for adjournment of the case at the instance of the respondents would not be entertained.
The bench gave two weeks to the Centre’s counsel to file the affidavit and made it clear that no more time would be given to him.
The Supreme Court had earlier asked the Center to take a decision on Rajoana’s mercy plea.
The Center then referred to the sensitivity of the case and said the mercy petition was under consideration.
In September 2024, the apex court sought responses from the Centre, the Punjab government and the Union Territory administration of Chandigarh on Rajoana’s plea.
Former Punjab chief minister Singh and 16 others were killed in a blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. A special court sentenced Rajoana to death in July 2007.
Rajoana’s prayer sought a direction for his release.
On May 3, 2023, the high court refused to commute his death sentence and said the competent authority could entertain his mercy plea.
In his new request submitted in 2024, Rajoana pointed out that he had suffered 28.8 years in prison, of which he spent over 15 years as a death sentence.
He said the SGPC filed a mercy petition under Article 72 in March 2012, seeking mercy on his behalf.
The petition said that more than a year had passed since the high court directed the competent authority, in due course, to deal with the mercy petition filed on his behalf and take further decisions.
He referred to an April 2023 order of the top court in a separate case, in which the court directed all states and authorities concerned to decide the pending mercy petitions as soon as possible and without any inordinate delay.
