Supreme Court gives Centre 2 months to decide on Rajoana’s mercy plea

A special court had in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Balwant Singh Rajoana in the Beant Singh assassination case.

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.

Balwant Singh Rajoana was convicted for his involvement in Beant Singh’s assassination on August 31, 1995.

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 high court 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 September 2019, wherein the Centre, in consultation with the Central Bureau of Investigation (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 the third week of July.

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 to be acted upon. The communication was sent to the respective state governments to proceed under Article 161 which deals with the Governor’s power to grant pardon, he added.

“It is an empty formality, why declare it then? It is not that states have taken an independent decision. If the state would have proceeded with the remission, the state would be the authority. But when a case is investigated by the CBI, the central government is the authority. Now you say states have to take the decision. What happens to your Article 72 power then?” the court said.

Appearing for Rajoana, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi assisted by advocate Rupesh Kumar said: “This court has held that any delay to decide on a person’s clemency beyond 10 years is a sufficient ground to commute death sentence. I do not want the President to decide my mercy, let it be decided here by courts and my sentence be commuted on ground of delay.”

“We will consider whether delay to decide on the mercy petition will entitle you to commutation,” the bench said.