SC asks President to decide on Rajoana's mercy plea, then puts it on hold

NEW DELHI: Within hours of passing an order requesting the President to decide Beant Singh murder convict Balwant Singh Rajoana 's mercy plea, Supreme Court withdrew its order after solicitor general Tushar Mehta assured that he would brief the court on the Centre's stand on the issue.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and K V Viswanathan had passed the order in the morning while observing that no one had appeared for the Centre to assist the court in deciding the case. It had directed the President's secretary to place Rajoana's file before her with a request to decide it in two weeks.

SG assured SC he would brief it on Centre’s Rajoana stand

Later in the day, Tushar Mehta requested the court not to pass any order and assured that he would brief the court on the Centre's stand. Allowing his plea, the court posted the matter to November 25.

Rajoana was convicted for assassinating Beant Singh, then Punjab chief minister, in 1995 and has been in jail for 29 years. He was sentenced to death in 2007 by a trial court but he, unlike other convicts, did not challenge his conviction in the high court or the Supreme Court. Mercy petition for commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment was filed by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on his behalf and has been pending for more than eight years.

The home ministry had on September 27, 2019, written to the Punjab chief secretary to propose special remission and release of prisoners on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in which his name was also there. But his name was not sent in view of the pending appeals of the co-accused in the SC.