Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.
NEW DELHI: Today, 28th Feb, The Supreme Court of India declined to hear the plea filed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) against the temporary release of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
On Friday, a bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra refused to entertain SGPC’s petition challenging an August 2024 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The plea before the Supreme Court questioned the High Court’s decision, which disposed of SGPC’s PIL against Singh’s parole. However, Singh’s counsel objected to the maintainability of the PIL, arguing that it targeted only a single individual.
The Supreme Court noted this objection and stated, “In that view of the matter, we are not inclined to consider the present petition.”
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Background
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.
The SGPC had moved the apex court against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s ruling that stated any application by Singh for temporary release should be evaluated by the competent authorities “without any arbitrariness or favouritism.”
The SGPC alleged that the Haryana government was misusing Section 11 of the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2022, to repeatedly grant parole and furlough to Singh between 2022 and 2024.
SGPC’s counsel argued that authorities had favored Singh by granting him the maximum parole period. However, Singh’s lawyer countered that the PIL in the High Court was “only directed against me (Singh),” suggesting a political motive behind the legal challenge.
The Supreme Court referred to the High Court’s earlier ruling, which stated that any parole application by Singh must be “considered strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 2022“ and should not involve “arbitrariness or favoritism or discrimination.”
Despite this ruling, the SGPC’s counsel pointed out that Singh had still been granted parole in January 2024.
To this, the Supreme Court advised SGPC to file a contempt petition before the High Court, stating, “Challenge that now and file a contempt petition before the high court that they (authorities) have committed a contempt of the high court’s order.”
Apart from the parole issue, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is also facing legal proceedings in other serious cases.
On January 3, 2024, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) appeal against his acquittal in the 2002 murder case of Ranjit Singh, a former sect manager.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had acquitted Singh and four others in May 2023, citing “tainted and sketchy” investigations.
Case Title:
The State of Punjab v. Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Ors., Diary No. 43184-2024
