- विज्ञापन -
The death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted of the murder of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, is to be heard again in the Supreme Court today. Rajoana has appealed to pardon his death sentence on the grounds of “extraordinary” and “unreasonable delay”.
The petition argues that the Government of India has taken a lot of time to decide on his mercy petition. He has been in jail for almost 29 years. In the last hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued in the Supreme Court that Rajoana’s death sentence case is pending since the tenure of the then Chief Justice SA Bobde. He said that Rajoana has been facing death sentence for 15 years and has been in jail for the last 29 years. He argued that he should be released now.
On which Justice BR Gavai, who is hearing the case, had said – either you take a decision, otherwise we will hear the case on merit. But not every case is the same. There is also the option of imprisonment-life sentence.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Vishwanathan heard the matter. On November 18, the court had requested that the mercy petition pending with the President be decided within two weeks. The court had also said that if the mercy petition was not considered within the stipulated time frame, it would consider the petition for granting interim relief.
However, after passing the order in open court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made an immediate appeal. He said the issue involved “sensitivity” and requested that the order not be signed and uploaded. The court accepted this request and refrained from finalising and uploading the order.
