From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Three judge-bench, headed by Justices B R Gawai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, did not give relief to Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking commutation of death term to life term. The Supreme Court has asked the Home Ministry to decide on the mercy plea. Rajoana was convicted for killing former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
In September 2019, the Union Home Ministry officials had announced the central government’s decision to commute the death sentence of Rajoana to life imprisonment. The decision was taken as a “humanitarian gesture” on the occasion of 550th birth celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was then part of the Narendra Modi government, had said the decision of commutation of death sentence would go a long way in assuaging the “hurt” feelings of the Sikh community who had to go through “unspeakable repression and humiliation during those dark days” when Punjab was pushed into terrorism.
The Supreme Court refused to commute Balwant Rajoana’s death sentence to life term. The Bench says the MHA’s stand to defer the decision in the matter amounts to declining Rajoana’s mercy plea for the present; asks the Centre to take a further decision as and when it deems necessary
The judgment was reserved on March 2 by the bench. Rajoana had sought commutation of his death penalty on the round that the Centre failed to take a decision on his mercy petition for a considerable long time.
“What we have decided is that the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs to defer the decision on the mercy petition of the petitioner is also the decision for decision given thereunder…it actually amounts to a decision declining to grant the same for the present. Therefore, we have directed that the competent authority in due course of time would again, as and when they deem necessary, may deal with the mercy petition and take a further decision,” Justice Nath, who pronounced the verdict, said, disposing of Rajoana’s petition.
Convicted of assassinating Beant Singh in 1995, Rajoana has been in jail for 25 years awaiting his execution. The former Punjab chief minister and 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh in 1995. He was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special court. His mercy petition has been hanging fire for more than eight years.
On behalf of Rajoana, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi had argued that keeping Rajaona on death row while sitting over his mercy plea for such a long time violated his fundamental rights.
