The Supreme Court is set to hear Balwant Singh Rajoana’s petition on November 4. Rajoana, sentenced to death for the 1995 assassination of then-Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, is seeking to have his sentence reduced to life imprisonment. He argues that the prolonged delay in ruling on his mercy plea has caused severe mental distress and violates his right to life.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to hear Balwant Singh Rajoana’s plea on November 4, in which he seeks to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment due to an “inordinate delay” in the decision on his mercy petition.
A special bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.K. Mishra, and K.V. Viswanathan will review the plea of Rajoana, who was convicted in the 1995 assassination of then–Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
On September 25, the Court requested responses from the Centre, the Punjab government, and the Chandigarh administration on Rajoana’s petition, which urges the authorities to commute his sentence “due to inordinate delay in its execution and in deciding the mercy petition filed on his behalf.”
Rajoana was convicted in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s then-Chief Minister Beant Singh, who, along with 16 others, was killed in a bombing at the entrance of the Chandigarh civil secretariat on August 31, 1995. In July 2007, a special court sentenced Rajoana to death.
According to Rajoana, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) submitted a mercy petition on his behalf under Article 72 of the Constitution in March 2012.
The Supreme Court, however, declined to commute his death sentence in May last year, leaving the decision to the competent authority. In his recent plea, Rajoana notes that he has served about 28 years and eight months in total, including 17 years as a death row inmate.
Referencing an April 2023 Supreme Court order urging authorities to avoid delays in mercy petition rulings, his plea states, .
“Despite the directions to expedite decisions on pending mercy petitions, the petitioner’s has remained unresolved,”
The plea argues,
“This extraordinary and inordinate delay… is an infringement of his right to life guaranteed under Article 21,”
Noting that the issue of prolonged delays in mercy petitions has been considered by the Supreme Court in numerous cases.
In one instance, the plea notes, the Supreme Court ordered the commutation of a death sentence to life imprisonment due to a delay of over five years in resolving a mercy petition.
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The plea asserts,
“It is respectfully submitted that an inordinate delay in deciding a death row convict’s mercy petition, as seen in this case, has consistently been recognized by this court as a valid ground for commutation of the death sentence,”
Furthermore, it emphasizes,
“The petitioner, a death row convict, has been awaiting a decision on his mercy petition for an excessively prolonged period, enduring unimaginable mental distress due to the uncertainty surrounding his fate. This situation constitutes an assault on his right to life as guaranteed under Article 21.”
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