SC asks govt to decide on Rajoana’s mercy plea in 2 months
NEW DELHI: Decisions on a death-row convict’s fate cannot be a mere “populist” move that would be forgotten the next day, the Supreme Court said on Monday while setting a deadline of two months for the Union government to take a final call on mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, an assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
A bench headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit also said that the pendency of appeals of other co-convicts in the apex court in the matter would not come in the way of authorities in deciding Rajoana’s plea.
“These are all our citizens. We should have compassion as these are death sentence matters,” the bench, also comprising justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha said.
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others on August 31, 1995. A special court had in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to him in the case. His death penalty was upheld by Punjab and Haryana high court in October 2010.
Rajoana has not challenged his conviction either before the HC or Supreme Court. However, in a petition before the top court in 2020, the convict referred to a communication issued by the Union home ministry in 2019, wherein the Centre, in consultation with the CBI and Intelligence Bureau, had decided to commute his death sentence to life term to mark the then 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
“Let the decision be taken as early as possible and preferably within two months from today,” the bench added, while directing the matter to be listed in the third week of July.