The Supreme Court on Friday pushed the government to take a decision on a mercy petition filed by Balwant Singh Rajoana, facing capital punishment for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, before Republic Day.
Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for Rajoana, said it would be possible for the government to spare time for the mercy petition, which had been pending for the past eight years, as there is no foreign guest coming on January 26 for the Republic Day celebrations.
Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj informed the court that the mercy plea file was being processed and had been submitted before the competent authority within the government. The President would take the final decision on whether Rajoana should live or not.
Mr. Rohatgi said the petition was filed in 2012. The death penalty of his client should be commuted on the sole ground of the delay on the part of the government to decide on the clemency petition.
“The long passage of eight years without a decision from the government side is fatal to the death penalty. This court has said in several judgments that a delay of eight years is a ground for reduction of punishment from death to life imprisonment... Whatever they [the government] may do today on his mercy plea is thus infructuous,” Mr. Rohatgi argued.
Chief Justice Bobde said the government was merely asking for another week or two before taking a call.
“He has been in prison for 25 years,” Mr. Rohatgi reminded.
“Another week or two will not change anything,” the Bench said.
It was then that Mr. Rohatgi pressed for a decision on the mercy plea before January 26. The court agreed, even as the government said that the file would be processed at the earliest.
“January 26 is a good day to call it,” Chief Justice Bobde remarked orally.
Another case
On December 4, the Supreme Court was livid to find that the Centre had kept a condemned man’s plea for Presidential mercy hanging in limbo despite having decided over a year ago to spare his life. The decision was taken in commemoration of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in 2019.
However, the government had failed to make good its declaration till date.
‘Inexplicable delay’
Rajoana, in a petition to the Supreme Court from his jail cell, had said his repeated pleas to the government about the fate of his mercy plea was met with silence. He called the delay inexplicable.
Mr. Nataraj had explained that Rajoana’s plea was kept in abeyance because appeals filed by his fellow accused were pending in the Supreme Court.
However, the court had said the law was already settled that once the government decided to recommend a Presidential pardon for a condemned man, the pendency of appeals in the Supreme Court of his co-accused could not delay the process initiated under Article 72 [Presidential pardon] of the Constitution.
Moreover, the CJI had noted, Rajoana had no appeals pending in any court.