Consider Rajoana's mercy plea with compassion: SC to Centre
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The Supreme Court gave the Centre two months to consider the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana and asked to deal with compassion. A top court bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit and comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha said the decision should be taken as early as possible, "preferably within two months from today".
Rajoana was sentenced to death for his role in the assassination of then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995. He has been in jail for 25 years. Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence before any court.
The Centre said the mercy petition cannot be considered because it is filed by another organisation and not by the convict. The Ministry of Home Affairs said the petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case are not disposed of. Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj is representing the Centre.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the petitioner, said several organisations filed a mercy petition on his behalf. The government had said these pleas are under consideration. He argued that the non-consideration of mercy petition is a ground to commute the death penalty.
The Supreme Court bench is of the opinion that the factor that another organisation filed the mercy plea is not an obstruction. The top court noted that it had decided in September 2019 to commute the death penalty of Rajoana to a life sentence on the special occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
Asking about the states' independent power under Article 161, the bench asked to see orders which show states have decided independently of this communication. The court further questioned how the state government would process the matter under Article 161.
Centre's counsel did not agree with the court and said in 2019a final decision was taken to commute Rajoana's death sentence. "It was decided that the proposal for commutation of death sentence, has to be processed under Article 72".
Nataraj also pointed out that Rajoana had stated before the trial court that he has no faith in the judiciary and the Constitution. Justice Lalit answered the argument by saying: "They are all citizens of this country. Need to deal with compassion".