NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition filed by Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is convicted in former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination case.
Rajoana’s plea seeks commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment, citing the inordinate delay in the government deciding his mercy plea.
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable who has been in jail for 28 years awaiting execution, said in his plea that the Centre has not taken a decision on his March 25, 2012 mercy petition till date.
Both the Centre and Punjab government will spell out their respective stands on the plea on Monday, before a three-judge bench headed by Justice BR Gavai, and also comprising Justices PK Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan.
Beant Singh and 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
Rajoana’s plea submitted that he has been in jail for more than 28 years and on death row for 17 years. Senior lawyer and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rajoana, had argued that he cannot be made to wait indefinitely citing national security. “Keeping the petitioner on death row while sitting over his mercy plea for such a long time violates his fundamental rights,” Rohatgi argued.
Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj, appearing for the Ministry of Home Affairs, had contended that the mercy petition cannot be considered as it was filed by the Siromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and not by Rajoana himself. He said it cannot be decided until the appeals of other convicts were decided by the top court.
Also in top court
Ex-Army man seeks to quash rape case
A two-judge bench will hear on Monday the plea filed by retired Captain Rakesh Walia, a 63-year-old decorated Army officer, seeking quashing of a charge sheet against him in an alleged rape case. Walia’s petition in top court challenges an order of the Delhi High Court, which had dismissed his plea before it.