SC asks President's secretary to place Rajoana's mercy plea before her

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Secretary to the President to place the mercy petition of Beant Singh assassination case convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking to commute his death penalty to life imprisonment, before the President with a request to consider it within two weeks.

A Special three-judge Bench led by Justice BR Gavai said if the mercy petition was not decided within two weeks, it will consider Rajoana’s prayer for interim relief i.e. releasing him for a few months, pending a final decision on his mercy petition.

“This Bench has specifically assembled only for this matter. On the last date, the matter was adjourned so as to enable the Union of India to take instruction from the office of the hon'ble President of India as to within how much period the mercy petition of the petitioner would be decided,” said the Bench which also included Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan.

“We therefore direct, Secretary, the President of India to place the matter before the hon'ble President within a request to consider the same within two weeks from today. We clarify that in the event no decision is taken on the next date, we will consider the prayers made by the petitioner for interim relief,” the Bench said, posting the matter for further hearing on December 5.

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.

The top court 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 Solicitor had to appear in this matter. On the last date, we were told...” Justice Gavai said.

On behalf of Rajoana, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi submitted, “If the State has no objection, let's proceed further. Because the communication was addressed to them many years ago...They have not responded. 28/29 years have gone by. Persons who are in the same batch, who were convicted for death in Bullar's case, were converted to life by a curative petition on the grounds of unexplained delay for 8 years. My mercy petition by SGPC is from 2012. We are in 2024. This man has not seen the light of the day outside jail.”

He said, “There is no difference...Somebody can move it (mercy petition) on my behalf or it could be suo motu. We have the example of the same batch where this court has converted death (penalty) into life (imprisonment). The Government says this is not the time to decide. When will you decide? When his life is over...”

Rohatgi said the central government had earlier said it was not the right time to decide the issue. This is not a case of national security...He's the only one left on death row,” he submitted.

The Punjab Government counsel said the Centre had earlier said there was a national threat if Rajoana was released.

The Bench 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 ground the Centre has failed to take a decision on his March 25, 2012, mercy petition till date.

In his fresh petition, Rajoana submitted that “About 01 year and 04 months have now elapsed since disposal of the petitioner’s first writ petition, and a decision on his fate still hangs under a cloud of uncertainty, causing deep mental trauma and anxiety to the petitioner every single living day, which by itself is a sufficient ground for exercise of this court’s Article 32 powers to allow the reliefs sought.”

Citing Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s case, the petitioner had claimed that the “Delay caused by circumstances beyond the prisoners’ control mandates commutation of death sentence” as the inordinate delay caused agony and adversely affected his physical and mental health.

The MHA had contended that Rajaona’s mercy petition can’t be considered as it was filed by SGPC and not by Rajoana himself and that it can’t be decided until the appeals of other convicts were decided by the top court.

Considering the prevailing situation, a decision has been taken by the MHA that it would be appropriate to defer any decision on the mercy petition as it could potentially compromise national security and create a law and order situation, it had said.