The Supreme Court is set to hear on November 4 a plea from Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
Rajoana’s petition cites an “inordinate delay” in the consideration of his mercy petition as a key reason for his request.
A special bench composed of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.K. Mishra, and K.V. Viswanathan will review Rajoana’s case. On September 25, the court requested responses from the Centre, the Punjab government, and the administration of the Union Territory of Chandigarh regarding his plea.
In his petition, Rajoana is asking for directions to both the Centre and the Punjab government to commute his death sentence, which he argues has not been executed in a timely manner.
Rajoana was convicted in the high-profile assassination case where Beant Singh, along with 16 others, was killed in a bombing at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. A special court sentenced Rajoana to death in July 2007.
Rajoana’s plea highlights that a mercy petition was filed on his behalf by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) under Article 72 of the Constitution in March 2012. The Supreme Court had previously rejected a request to commute his death sentence in May of last year, stating that the competent authority could handle his mercy plea.
In his latest appeal, Rajoana noted that he has been incarcerated for approximately 28 years and eight months, with 17 years spent on death row. He emphasized that it has been over a year since the Supreme Court directed the competent authority to make a decision regarding his mercy petition.
Rajoana’s petition refers to an April 2023 Supreme Court order in a separate case, which instructed all states and relevant authorities to expedite the resolution of pending mercy petitions without unnecessary delay. “Despite the above directions, the mercy petition of the petitioner herein has been kept pending,” his plea asserts.
He argues that the significant delay in deciding his mercy petition infringes on his right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The plea underscores that the issue of prolonged pendency of mercy petitions and the impact on convicts has been raised in several cases before the Supreme Court.
Notably, in a prior ruling, the court commuted a death sentence to life imprisonment after noting a delay of over five years in the handling of a mercy petition. Rajoana’s plea states, “An inordinate delay in the decision of a death row convict’s mercy petition has consistently been recognized by this court as a valid ground for commutation.”
Rajoana contends that this prolonged uncertainty has inflicted severe mental anguish, violating his right to life as protected under Article 21. The Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision will be closely watched, given the implications for Rajoana and similar cases in the justice system.
