New Delhi: A Special Bench of the Supreme Court on Monday set March 18 as the deadline for the Centre to take a call on the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the death row convict in the Punjab CM Beant Singh assassination case.
“We are giving you the last chance… Either you decide or we will hear the case on merits,” a three-judge Bench of Justices BR Gavai, PK Mishra and KV Vishwanath. told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.
Appearing on behalf of the Babbar Khalsa terrorist, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi said that he is on death row for 15 years and in prison for 29 years. “This has been going on since the time of CJI SA Bobde (since retired). He should be released now. They have been taking time for 5 years…Same argument is always raised-it has ramifications and all that. In Bhullar’s case, in this very incident, your Lordship converted life imprisonment from death [penalty].”
Mehta, however, argued that the matter is sensitive as it’s related to murder of a sitting Chief Minister.
Singh, a police officer in Punjab, was convicted on July 27, 2007, by a special Central Bureau of Investigation Court, for the deadly suicide bombing at Chandigarh secretariat complex on August 31, 1995, in which the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh along with 16 others, died.
On November 18, 2024, the SC had put on hold its order, directing the Secretary to the President to place the mercy petition of the Beant Singh assassination case convict before the President with a request to consider it within two weeks, at the request of the Solicitor General.
