Chandigarh, 21 April: The Supreme Court on Monday postponed for two weeks the hearing on a petition filed by Beant Singh murder convict Jagtar Singh Hawara, who has requested a transfer from Delhi’s Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab.
A bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai adjourned the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Chandigarh Administration, sought more time to file a response. The Punjab government, however, has already objected to the transfer.
“Hawara was tried in Chandigarh. Punjab has no claim in this matter,” the state’s Advocate General earlier told the court, adding that the applicable prison rules are those of the Union Territory, not Punjab. “If at all he is to be shifted, it is to the UT of Chandigarh,” the AG maintained.
He also pointed out that a similar plea by Hawara had been dismissed by the Delhi High Court in 2018.
The Delhi government, in its stand, also opposed Hawara’s request, noting Punjab’s status as a border state and reiterating that he could only be transferred to Chandigarh, not Punjab.
The apex court had issued notice to the Centre, the Delhi government, and the Chandigarh Administration on September 27 last year, asking for their replies to Hawara’s petition.
Monday’s adjournment gives these entities more time to respond before the court considers the matter again.
Hawara, 54, argued that his transfer to Punjab is justified on humanitarian and logistical grounds.
His counsel, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, submitted that Hawara has exhibited good conduct in jail, has no pending cases in Delhi, and is unable to attend trial proceedings in Punjab due to his incarceration in Tihar.
“All other convicts in the case are in Punjab,” Gonsalves told the bench, noting that Hawara’s co-accused in the 2004 Burail jailbreak are all lodged in Punjab jails.
“He has a 14-year-old daughter in Punjab but no access to her,” Gonsalves added.
The petitioner also claimed that the Director General (Prisons) had recommended his transfer to Punjab back in October 2016, and that the only pending matter against him is in that state.
“He is not being produced in court and the proceedings are going on without him, which is prejudicial to the petitioner,” his plea stated.
He also alleged that 36 “false” cases had been foisted on him after Beant Singh’s assassination and that he had been acquitted in all but one.
Hawara was arrested on September 21, 1995, weeks after the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others in a bomb explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.
A CBI special court in 2007 sentenced Balwant Singh Rajoana and Hawara to death, while co-conspirators Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh were given life imprisonment.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court later commuted Hawara’s sentence to life in 2010, and the CBI’s appeal against that decision is still pending in the Supreme Court.
Hawara had escaped from Burail Jail in January 2004 and was rearrested the following year.
The matter is expected to be taken up again in two weeks.
