New Delhi, November 18, 2024: The Supreme Court directed the secretary to President Droupadi Murmu to submit the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination of then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, for immediate consideration.
A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, PK Mishra, and KV Viswanathan urged the President’s office to address the petition within two weeks, noting the urgency due to Rajoana’s death sentence. “Despite the matter being scheduled specifically for today, no representative appeared for the Union of India. The bench convened solely to address this case,” the judges remarked during the hearing.
The bench highlighted that the last adjournment was granted to allow the Union to gather instructions from the President’s office on the timeline for deciding the plea. “Considering the petitioner’s status as a death row convict, we instruct the President’s secretary to place the petition before the President with a request for a decision within two weeks,” the court directed.
The Supreme Court scheduled the next hearing for December 5.
Earlier, on September 25, the top court had sought responses from the Centre, Punjab government, and Chandigarh administration regarding Rajoana’s appeal. The case dates back to August 31, 1995, when Beant Singh and 16 others were killed in a blast outside the civil secretariat in Chandigarh. In July 2007, a special court sentenced Rajoana to death.
Rajoana’s mercy petition was filed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) under Article 72 of the Constitution in March 2012. However, on May 3 last year, the Supreme Court declined to commute his sentence, stating that the competent authority should handle the mercy plea.
