The Center told the Supreme Court on Monday (November 25, 2024) that the matter related to the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is facing death sentence in the murder of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, is sensitive.< /p>
A bench led by Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai is hearing Rajoana’s plea seeking direction to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment due to inordinate delay in the decision on his mercy petition.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, ‘This is a sensitive matter. Some agencies will have to be consulted. This bench also includes Justice PK Mishra and Justice KV Vishwanathan. Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, who appeared in the case, said that the government is reviewing the matter.
He said that since this is a sensitive matter, there is a need to collect some more information. The bench said that it will hear the petition after four weeks. While hearing the petition on November 18, the court had stayed its order under which the President Draupadi Murmu‘s secretary was instructed to place Rajoana’s mercy petition before the President.
The bench had given this order on the morning of November 18, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had urged the bench that this order should not be implemented, as it is a very sensitive issue. Tushar Mehta had told the bench that the file is currently with the Home Ministry and not with the President.
On September 25, the Supreme Court had sought response from the Centre, Punjab government and the administration of Union Territory Chandigarh on Rajoana’s petition. Rajoana was found guilty in the blast case outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. The then Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 other people were killed in this incident.
In July 2007, a special court sentenced Rajoana to death. Rajoana has said in his petition that in March 2012, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had filed a mercy petition on his behalf under Article 72 of the Constitution requesting clemency.
On May 3 last year, the Supreme Court had refused to convert the death sentence awarded to Rajoana to life imprisonment. The court had said that the competent authority can consider his mercy petition."text-align: justify;">Also read:-
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