NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Union government for opposing consideration of Balwant Singh Rajoana’s plea for commutation of his death sentence, nearly three decades after he was convicted for the 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
A bench led by Justice Vikram Nath asked why the Centre had not acted on Rajoana’s mercy petition, observing that the convict has spent over 13 years under the shadow of death and nearly 30 years in prison.
Govt stand rejected
Additional solicitor general K M Nataraj argued that the President did not decide on the mercy plea since it had been filed by others, not Rajoana himself. The bench, however, was not convinced.
‘If commuted, he walks free’
Appearing for Rajoana, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said: “This man has been on death row for two decades, unlike others who got relief after just two years. If the SC commutes his sentence to life, he will be released immediately.”
Rohatgi cited the case of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted for the 1993 Delhi bomb blasts. The Supreme Court in 2014 commuted his death penalty to life, citing undue delay in execution even though the President had rejected his mercy plea.
Govt decision not implemented
Rajoana’s case is complicated by the fact that on September 27, 2019, the Union home ministry wrote to Punjab’s chief secretary stating that his death penalty would be commuted to life imprisonment as part of the 550th birth anniversary commemorations of Guru Nanak Dev. That decision, however, was never acted upon.
Case background
Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2007 for the August 31, 1995 car bombing outside the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh, which killed CM Beant Singh and 16 others. While the Punjab and Haryana high court upheld the sentence in 2010, Rajoana chose not to appeal. He later moved the Supreme Court seeking commutation, citing his 25 years in prison and 13 years on death row.
