The Supreme Court retracted its judgment within hours of asking the President to consider Balwant Singh Rajoana’s appeal for compassion in the murder case of Beant Singh. This was after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta promised to inform the court of the Center’s position on the matter.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra, and K V Viswanathan issued the judgment in the morning, noting that no one from the Centre had come to help the court in determining the matter. It had asked the President’s secretary to present Rajoana’s case to her with the request that she make a decision within two weeks.
SG told SC that he would advise them on the Centre’s Rajoana viewpoint.
Later in the day, Tushar Mehta asked the court not to issue an order and promised to advise the court on the Centre’s position. The judge accepted his plea and rescheduled the hearing until November 25.
Rajoana, convicted of assassinating Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, has been in jail for 29 years. He was sentenced to death in 2007 but did not challenge his conviction in the high court or Supreme Court.
A mercy petition for commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment has been pending for over eight years. The home ministry attempted to propose special remission and release of prisoners on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, but his name was not sent due to pending appeals from the co-accused in the SC.
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Source: TOI
