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'Either You Decide Or We'll Hear' : Supreme Court Gives Last Chance To Union On Balwant Singh's Mercy Plea, Posts On March 18
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
20 Jan 2025 5:58 AM
The Supreme Court today (January 20) stated that either the Union Government will take a decision or the Court will decide on the merits of the mercy petition filed by Balwant Singh Rajoana, Babbar Khalsa terrorist, seeking commutation of the death sentence awarded to him in the Punjab CM Beant Singh assassination case. He is seeking commutation on the grounds of delay in considering the...
The Supreme Court today (January 20) stated that either the Union Government will take a decision or the Court will decide on the merits of the mercy petition filed by Balwant Singh Rajoana, Babbar Khalsa terrorist, seeking commutation of the death sentence awarded to him in the Punjab CM Beant Singh assassination case.
He is seeking commutation on the grounds of delay in considering the mercy petition pending before the President of India since 2012.
Singh, a police officer in Punjab, was convicted on July 27, 2007 by a special Central Bureau of Investigation Court, under Sections 120-B, 302, 307 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 3(b), 4(b) and 5(b) r/w 6 of the Explosives Substances Act, 1908 for an incident involving a deadly suicide bombing at the Chandigarh secretariat complex on August 31, 1995, wherein the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh along with 16 others, lost their lives.
Appearing for Singh, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted that "nothing has happened" since the last hearing where this Court granted some time to the Union. On the last hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that the case involved "sensitivities" and therefore, pressed for 4 weeks.
Rohatgi said: "Your lordship granted so much time. They have done nothing...He has spent 29 years in jail. From the time of Justice Bobde being Chief Justice, last five years this has been going on. Your Lordships decision two years ago was [decide without reasonable time]...It has now been 29 years of custody and for last 15 years, he has been on death row. As per your Lordship's judgments, I am entitled to be released. I am not interested in their decision...Grant him some relief. They can take 6 years. But the man must come back to the society...They have been taking time for 5 years...Same argument is always raised-it has ramifications and all that. In Bhullar's case, in this very incident, your Lordship converted life imprisonment from death [penalty]."
This came after a special bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan on November 18, 2024, had passed an order virtually directing the President of India to decide the mercy petition within 2 weeks, failing which the Court will consider the interim prayer. Although Mehta had not appeared when the order was passed in the open Court, an urgent mentioning was made by him just before a bench was about to rise for lunch. He requested that the order not be signed. Accepting that request, the bench had then agreed to not finalise the order.
Today, Mehta pressed for 4-6 weeks more time, which the Court said it would grant subject to the fact that in the next hearing, if the Union has not decided the fate of the mercy petition, the Court will hear the matter on merits. Justice Gavai said: "We will grant you time by way of last chance. Either you take a decision or we will hear on merits."
Matter is now posted for hearing on March 18.
Before concluding, Rohagti also pressed that a medical report of Singh be put on record before the Court on his "mental capability". On this, Justice Gavai said: "Medical report, they will take care of it. If they are negligent in providing.."
Whereas, Mehta responded that there cannot be a report of mental capability.
Detailed background
Out of 15 accused persons named in the FIR, Balwant Singh Rajoana along with 08 others, were put to trial and convicted for the aforesaid offences. In contrast, others were sentenced to life imprisonment. Along with Rajoana, co-accused Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was reportedly the mastermind behind the operation, was also sentenced to death
At the same time, co-accused Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh, and Lakhwinder Singh were awarded life imprisonment. The verdict was delivered inside the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh. In total, 15 were convicted.
The assailant was one Dilawar Singh, a police officer, who along with two other officials of the Punjab police, namely, Rajoana and one Lakhwinder Singh, had, allegedly in response to Operation Bluestar and the anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi in 1984, was tasked with executing the Congress leader, known for his robust counterterrorism policies. Rajoana, a police constable, was not only responsible for ensuring that Singh reached the chief minister after crossing the security ring in the complex but was also equipped with a backup explosive device in case the first plan failed. Separatist group Babbar Khalsa International, whose primary goal is to establish a sovereign homeland called Khalistan for people of their faith, took responsibility for the assassination.
The Punjab & Haryana Court confirmed Rajoana's conviction on October 12, 2010. However, while confirming the conviction of a co-accused Jagtar Singh Hawara, the High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Singh did not file an appeal against the High Court's order. He counsel and refused to defend himself against the charges levelled by the State, in a display of open derision of the Indian judicial system. Thereafter, on March 5, 2012, a death warrant for executing his sentence was issued. However, on March 25, the same year, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee ('SGPC') preferred a mercy petition under Article 72 of the Constitution of India seeking clemency on Singh's behalf.
Subsequently, the mercy petition was processed for consideration in the Home Ministry, and a stay against its execution was intimated to the state authorities on March 28, 2012.
The petitioner claimed that the Union government had announced in 2019 that it would commute Rajoana's death sentence to life imprisonment, besides sanctioning the premature release of eight Sikh prisoners serving life and other sentences as a humanitarian gesture to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. However, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah later informed the Lok Sabha that Rajoana had not been freed from death row.
In 2020, Singh filed a writ petition seeking the commutation of the death penalty. On March 24, 2022, a bench of Justices UU Lalit, SR Bhat and PS Narasimha directed the Central Government to take a call by April 30, 2022 with respect to the mercy petition. In May, the same year, the bench directed that the mercy petition be decided within 2 months irrespective of the appeals pending before the Court.
The Home Ministry had filed an affidavit stating that the mercy petition could not be considered as it had been filed by another organization and not the convict himself. It was also stated the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the Supreme Court are not disposed (Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the High Court or the Supreme Court).
Rohatgi before the Court firmly contested the State's claim that Rajoana's sentence had not been commuted yet because of 'security concerns' and the pendency of an appeal filed by a co-accused. He argued: “To keep a prisoner on death row for so long violates their fundamental rights according to judgements of this court and is a ground for their sentence to be commuted. Rajoana is entitled to be released from death row forthwith. The moment he gets his commutation order, he can apply to be released since he has already spent 27 years behind bars. It is inhuman. Alternatively, if you wish to wait for the government's response to the mercy appeals, then at the very least, grant the petitioner parole. He wants to go to his village, and he will stay there.”
On May 3, 2023, the Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, and Sanjay Karol declined to commute the death penalty but directed that the mercy petition be decided by a competent authority in due course of time. However, the President has yet to decide on the mercy petition.
Case Details: Balwant Singh v. UOI & Ors, W.P.(Crl.) No. 414/2024