The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily stayed its earlier directive requiring the secretary to President Droupadi Murmu to place before her the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination of then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The court’s decision came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta raised concerns about the “sensitivities” of the matter and informed the bench that the file was with the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the President. The bench agreed to hear the case on Friday.
Earlier in the day, a bench comprising Justices B R Gavai, P K Mishra, and K V Viswanathan had requested the President to decide on the plea within two weeks, citing the urgency due to Rajoana’s status as a death row inmate. The bench expressed displeasure over the absence of representation from the Union of India despite prior directions for updates regarding the plea’s status.
Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 for his role in the blast at the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, which killed Beant Singh and 16 others. In 2012, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on Rajoana’s behalf under Article 72 of the Constitution. However, the plea remains undecided.
In May last year, the Supreme Court declined to commute Rajoana’s death sentence, stating that the competent authority must address the mercy plea. The court has now sought responses from the Centre, the Punjab government, and Chandigarh’s administration regarding the petition.
