SC gives the Center four weeks to decide on Rajoana’s mercy plea

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Union government four weeks to decide on the long-awaited mercy plea of ​​Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, even as the Center signaled the Supreme Court’s “sensitivity” and said the current situation is not conducive to resolving this issue.

A bench comprising Justices Bhushan R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan adjourned the hearing on Rajoana’s plea following submissions filed by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who appeared before the Union government.

“The matter is delicate. Several agencies should be consulted. We need a little more time,” Mehta told the bench. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), shared these concerns, saying, “The situation is still not conducive to a decision.”

The court accepted the Center’s plea and adjourned the case for four weeks.

Rajoana, a former constable of the Punjab Police, was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role as a backup bomber in a suicide attack outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Beant Singh and 16 others were killed in the attack. The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the death sentence in 2010.

Rajoan was scheduled to be executed in 2012, but it was suspended after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) submitted a clemency petition on his behalf. Over the years, successive governments have cited national security concerns and the delicate political environment in Punjab as reasons for the delay in accepting the complaint.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had in 2019 offered to commute Rajoana’s sentence as a goodwill gesture on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. However, the proposal was never formalized. In 2020, Rajoana approached the Supreme Court, challenging the prolonged delay in processing his clemency petition.

In previous hearings, the Supreme Court had expressed dissatisfaction with the inordinate delay in considering Rajoana’s clemency request. During the hearing on November 18, the adjudicating panel emphasized the need to consider the allegation. It was even considered to direct the Secretary to the President to expedite the decision within two weeks, but he deferred the decision as the Center needed more time. “The central government should react. Why not do it? This also requires the assistance and advice of the Centre,” the court observed on the last day.

He warned that he may reinstate his earlier order that the President make a decision on the charge by November 25. However, following the Centre’s recent comments, the matter was adjourned till December.

The issue of Rajoana’s release carries significant political and national security implications. He was associated with the Babbar Khalsa, a militant Sikh separatist group responsible for brutal actions during the Punjab insurgency. His release is a sensitive issue for both the families of terrorism victims and the political dynamics in Punjab, raising concerns about a resurgence of pro-Khalistan sentiment.

Rajoana’s previous petition, which criticized the Centre’s delay in accepting the leniency application, was decided by the Supreme Court in May 2023. The court noted that the MHA’s decision to defer its decision on Rajoana’s clemency application on grounds of national security and law and order “in fact, it amounts to a decision to refuse to grant the same benefit for the time being.” Rather, it allowed the Center to consider his clemency request “at the appropriate time”.

A year later, Rajoana’s filed the current petition through lawyer Diksha Rai, maintaining that he “is not a member of any anti-nationalist organization and has never shared its views” and therefore the commutation of his sentence cannot be withheld on grounds of national security or public order . He added that the high court had consistently recognized the excessive delay in executing the death sentence and issuing the final decision on his clemency application, invoking its powers under Art. 32 in order to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

“Keeping him in suspense while the consideration of his mercy petition by the Honorable President of India remains pending for many years is an agony that has created adverse physical conditions and mental stress for the petitioner who is currently in jail for the last 28 years and 7 months, locked in an 8 x 10 foot cell for the last 17 years,” the petition reads.