New Delhi, April 22: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a firm directive to the Union Government, demanding an affidavit within two weeks regarding the pending mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana. Convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, Rajoana is seeking to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, citing an extraordinary delay in the decision-making process.
A three-judge bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Vijay Bishnoi questioned the government’s silence on the matter. The bench stated that if a counter-affidavit is not filed, the allegations made by the petitioner would remain uncontroverted. While the Centre’s counsel requested to submit documents in a sealed cover, the court maintained that a formal response must be placed on the record, clarifying that no further extensions would be entertained.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Rajoana, stated that the mercy petition filed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in March 2012 has remained pending for over a decade. He noted that the petitioner has been incarcerated for more than 29 years, with 15 of those spent on death row. Rohatgi affirmed that previous court orders from 2023 and 2024 had already urged authorities to take a definitive call on the matter.
The case dates back to August 31, 1995, when a blast at the Chandigarh civil secretariat claimed the life of Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others. Rajoana was sentenced to death by a special court in 2007. Despite the Centre previously citing the sensitivity of the case as a reason for the prolonged consideration, the Supreme Court declared that the continued delay necessitates a formal explanation of the current status of the clemency request.
