The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea by death-row prisoner Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, over the delay in deciding on his mercy petition [Balwant Singh vs Union of India and ors].
A Bench of Justices BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan sought the response of the Central and Punjab governments and the Chandigarh administration in the matter, within four weeks.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi with Advocates Diksha Rai Goswami and Atiga Singh appeared for Rajoana.
The Supreme Court had in May last year refused to commute the death penalty handed down to Rajoana for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
It had instead left it to the Central government's competent authority to deal with the mercy petition filed by Rajoana.
He has been in jail for over 28 years, and has now sought release from jail in view of the inordinate delay in disposing of his mercy petition.
His plea for Presidential mercy has been hanging in limbo despite the government having decided in 2019 to spare his life in commemoration of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
The latest plea points out that it has been over a year since the last judgment by the apex court.
"(The petitioner) has undergone a total sentence of about 28 years & 08 months as on date, of which 17 years have been served as a death row convict in a capital punishment cell, including 2.5 years in solitary confinement," the plea said.
In 2022, the top court had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Central government to immediately take a call in the matter.
Pertinently, at the time, the Court had even warned that the concerned Secretary and the CBI Director (Prosecution) would have to remain personally present in future hearings if the authorities failed to make their decision soon.
During these hearings, the top court had also orally observed that the continuing failure of the Central government to decide on the issue appeared to be contemptuous.
The Central government had submitted that until last year, there was no representation from Rajoana regarding the commutation of his sentence.
Rather, such representations came only from organisations like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), while many other organisations had written against the proposed move, it added.