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The Supreme Court of India on Monday declined to grant interim relief to Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. Rajoana's plea for commutation of his death sentence was rejected without a detailed hearing, and the court granted the Punjab government two more weeks to respond to his petition. This decision follows years of legal battles surrounding Rajoana's case, with his legal team citing the 'extraordinary' and 'inordinate' delay in the processing of his mercy petition by the President as grounds for commutation.
Rajoana's legal counsel, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, argued that his client has been in custody for 29 years, 15 of which were spent on death row. The prolonged delay in deciding the mercy plea was described as “shocking.” Rohatgi further emphasized that despite the Supreme Court commuting the sentences of others involved in the case to life imprisonment, Rajoana’s plea had remained unresolved for a year and a half. He urged the court to release Rajoana for a temporary period, emphasizing his prolonged detention and the violation of his right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
However, the bench maintained that the matter required further hearing. Rajoana was found guilty of the August 31, 1995, assassination of Beant Singh and 12 others by a special CBI court in 2007 and sentenced to death. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee filed a mercy petition on his behalf in 2012. While the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) proposed commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2019 to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the proposal was never implemented. Rajoana has been consistently petitioning the Supreme Court for a decision on his mercy plea, highlighting the prolonged period of uncertainty and delay in justice.
Source: Supreme Court denies interim relief to Beant Singh assassination convict Balwant Singh Rajoana