The Supreme Court has directed the Union government to "immediately look into" a matter arising out of a plea by Balwant Singh Rajoana on commutation of his death to life imprisonment in a case related to the assassination of then-Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha noted, "nothing has been done in the matter" though the Union government had earlier sought time to decide the issue, including a mercy petition filed by the convict on March 25, 2012.
On March 24, when a writ petition filed by Rajoana was taken up, the court was irked also to note that a counsel, appearing for the Union government, had got no clear instructions in the matter.
In a written order, the bench then directed, "the matter shall immediately be looked into by the concerned authorities including the Government of India, and the CBI."
The proposal or the objection to the plea for commutation should be made by the CBI within two weeks and the appropriate authority in the central government should bestow attention and take the required decision within two weeks thereafter, the bench said.
The court sought an action taken report and the decision on or before April 30, failing which the concerned Secretary, Department of Home Affairs, and the Director (Prosecution), CBI should remain personally present along with the record, on May 2, the next date of hearing.
53-year-old Rajoana was sentenced to death by a special CBI court in Chandigarh on August 1, 2007 for his involvement in an explosion outside Punjab Civil Secretariat leading to the killing of then Punjab CM and 16 others in 1995. His hanging was stayed in 2012 by the then UPA government on filing of the mercy petition.
He did not file an appeal against the judgement. The High Court, however, affirmed his conviction and sentence on a reference. But it had then commuted sentence of his co-convict Jagtar Singh Hawara to life term. The appeal related to Hawara's conviction and sentence is at present pending before the top court.
Meanwhile, on September 27, 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs, has written to the Chief Secretary of Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka and Delhi, proposing special remission and release of prisoners, on the occasion of commemoration of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
As many as eight Sikh prisoners were to be given special remission under Article 161 of the Constitution and released from prison. However, the proposal for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment of one prisoner (Rajoana) was yet to be processed under Article 72 of the Constitution.
Rajoana filed the writ petition for a direction to the Union government to decide his 2012 mercy petition and his death sentence be commuted to imprisonment for life.
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