Come November 1, the Supreme Court will take up for final disposal, the mercy petition of former Punjab Police constable and pro-Khalistan militant Balwant Singh Rajoana, who has been languishing in jail for the past 26 years, for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Appearing for Rajoana before the Bench of Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela M. Trivedi, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that his client has been in Patiala Central Jail for the past 26 years.
As per Rohatgi, he wanted to argue on the point that his client was worthy of getting a life sentence commuted today itself. He alleged that the letter issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was false.
The Senior Advocate contended that the Apex Court had taken a decision in 2019 and the approval of the government relied with the President. Rajoana has remained in jail since January, 1996. He has been on death row since 2007.
“The mercy petition was filed in 2012 and it is 2022 now. Ten years have passed since. I don’t want to beg them. I don’t wish to be clubbed with anyone,” he added.
As per Rohatgi, the affidavit filed by MHA was nothing worth the paper it was written on. Stating that Rajoana was accused of spying, the former Attorney General urged the Apex Court to hear the case today or tomorrow and be done with it.
The CJI-led Bench noted that the co-accused case was also pending before it and decided to list both the matters on the same day, but to be heard separately.The Bench then listed Rajoana’s case as first matter before a three-Judge Bench on November 1.
As per CJI, there were two ways to look at it. It was either execution of sentence or commutation. While Rajoana sought commutation of death penalty, the appeal filed by the co-accused was a substantive appeal, it said.
During its previous hearings, the Apex Court had asked the Central government to provide its stand on mercy plea of Rajoana. The Centre contended that it was difficult to consider his mercy plea in the present scenario.
Rajoana was arrested on December 22, 1995, for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995. The suicide bomb attack at Chandigarh had claimed 12 other lives as well.
Rajoana has come out on parole only once in the past 27 years, for an hour, to attend his adoptive father Jaswant Singh’s death ritual, on January 31 this year.
He was convicted by a local court of Chandigarh in July 2007 and his hanging was scheduled on March 31, 2012.
However, it was stayed after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition with the President of India on March 25 following which, the Union Home Ministry ordered a stay on his execution.
On September 27, 2019, the Ministry had written a letter to Punjab, stating that to commemorate Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary, it was decided to give special remission to Sikh prisoners. The Central government proposed to commute Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment under Article 72 of the Constitution, but even after three years, the proposal was yet to be implemented.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on April 30 this year, stating that Rajoana’s mercy petition cannot be considered as it has been filed by another organisation and not the convict himself.
It further contended that since the convict has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the High Court or the Supreme Court, the mercy plea cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the Supreme Court are not disposed of.
The Apex Court had earlier flayed the Centre for not deciding the mercy plea withing two months, as directed by the top court of the country.