No decision on moving Beant Singh assassination convict Jagtar Singh Hawara from Tihar Jail to a Punjab prison until the Intelligence Bureau has given its inputs, the Supreme Court has directed.
New Delhi: Hearing a plea by Jagtar Singh Hawara, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, for transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to a jail in Punjab, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to obtain the views of the Intelligence Bureau [Jagtar Singh Hawara v. Government of NCT of Delhi & Ors.].
The Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice PB Varale was hearing Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 403 of 2024, on which notice had been issued on September 27, 2024.
The Bench’s concern
Justice Sundresh asked how the Court could set aside the objection raised by the State of Punjab:
“But how do we ignore the objection of the Punjab state?”
The Bench acknowledged the humanitarian side of the plea and said the Court is generally inclined to consider parole and similar relief. It observed, however, that this is not a simple murder case, since Punjab has said the concerns go beyond Hawara’s own conduct. The Court said it was not in a position to judge on its own whether a transfer could create a law and order problem, and its order records that a decision in a matter like this cannot be taken without obtaining inputs from the Intelligence Bureau.
What the Court asked for
The Additional Solicitor General was asked to obtain instructions from the Intelligence Bureau on the security and law and order implications of moving Hawara to a Punjab prison. The Court will examine the matter further after receiving them, and the matter is next likely to be heard on November 3. The Court has not decided the plea and has expressed no final view on it.
What Hawara wants
Hawara, who has spent about 31 years in custody, wants to be shifted to a prison in Punjab. He has cited the condition of his 82-year-old mother, whom he wishes to meet, and has said that the case against him was registered in Punjab, that his daughter lives there and that no case is pending against him in Delhi. He has said that he seeks relocation to a high-security Punjab prison and not release. His counsel, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, submitted that the events date back about 30 years and followed the upheaval of 1984, and that past conduct should not weigh against him after so long.
Hawara was sentenced to death in 2007 for the 1995 bomb blast in Chandigarh that killed Beant Singh and others. The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the conviction in 2010 and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Appeals against that judgment are pending before the Supreme Court.
Delhi’s case for waiting on the IB
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, for the Delhi government, said inputs from the Intelligence Bureau were needed before any decision. She pointed to Hawara’s six convictions, his escape from a Chandigarh jail in January 2004 by digging a tunnel, and the earlier rejection of a transfer proposal by the competent authority. She relied on a Ministry of Home Affairs advisory on the inter-state transfer of high-risk prisoners, which calls for consulting intelligence agencies and avoiding transfers where they give adverse inputs, and submitted that Punjab has opposed the transfer in an affidavit on grounds of peace and law and order.
Security material over submissions
Requests by long-term prisoners to be moved closer to home usually turn on humanitarian grounds, but where the offence involved a political assassination the Court is weighing the State’s security assessment alongside them. By seeking Intelligence Bureau inputs, the Bench has chosen to ground its decision on the security material rather than on the submissions of either side alone.
Case Title: Jagtar Singh Hawara v. Government of NCT of Delhi & Ors. [W.P.(Crl.) No. 403 of 2024]
Bench: Justice MM Sundresh and Justice PB Varale, Supreme Court of India
Date of Hearing: October 13, 2026
Appearances: Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves for the petitioner; Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati for the Government of NCT of Delhi