SC gives govt 2 mnths to decide on Rajoana’s plea
NEW DELHI: Decisions on a deathrow convict’s fate cannot be a mere “populist” move that will be forgotten the next day, the Supreme Court said on Monday while setting a deadline of two months for the Centre 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 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 high court or Supreme Court. However, in a petition before the top in 2020, the convict referred to a communication issued by the Union home ministry in September 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. Pursuant to an order passed by the court last month directing authorities at the Centre and CBI to take a firm decision on grant of clemency to Rajoana, the home ministry in an affidavit last week claimed that the mercy plea cannot be considered as it has been filed by another organisation and not the convict himself.
It added that any decision on his clemency to be considered by the President under Article 72 must await the outcome of the appeals filed by one of his co-accused, Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the top court. The bench, however, noted that the objections raised by the Centre were rejected by the top court on December 4, 2020. “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 July third week.
Appearing for the Centre, additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj said “(Rajoana) has no faith in the judicial system”. “At one point of time, he even prayed for his death sentence to be executed. And now he is arguing for commutation,” he said. The bench told Nataraj that this will only be relevant if the convict seeks commutation of death sentence on ground of inordinate delay to decide on his mercy plea.
However, the court pointed out, the issue in question was the Centre’s 2019 decision which has not been implemented so far. “Was this decision (of September 2019) an empty kind of exercise? Was this like all those populist announcements that are to be forgotten the next day?” the bench said.
The ASG also told the court that the decision by MHA was only to process the request and not a final decision. The communication was sent to the respective state governors to proceed under Article 161 which deals with the Governor’s power to grant pardon, he added.