Balwant Singh Rajoana mercy plea: Supreme Court pulls up Centre, seeks reply within 2 weeks
Supreme Court gives Centre 2 weeks to respond on Balwant Singh Rajoana’s mercy plea; after 29 years in jail, delay in decision raises big legal questions
Balwant Singh Rajoana mercy plea: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to file its response within two weeks on the pending mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
A Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi expressed concern over the prolonged delay, asking the Centre why it had yet to submit its counter-affidavit. The court made it clear that no further extensions would be granted.
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, has spent over 29 years in prison after being sentenced to death in 2007 for his role in the 1995 blast outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh that killed Beant Singh and 17 others.
Appearing for Rajoana, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi highlighted that a mercy petition filed in March 2012 by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee remains undecided even after more than 13 years. He pointed out that the court had earlier asked authorities to take a decision, but no progress has been made.
The Bench insisted that the Centre must place its stand on record instead of seeking to submit documents in a sealed cover, warning that failure to respond would leave the petitioner’s claims uncontested.
Rajoana’s plea argues that the excessive delay in deciding his mercy petition warrants commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. He cited the precedent set in the case of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, where delay was considered a valid ground for relief due to its psychological impact on the convict.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has earlier maintained that the petition could not be processed as it was filed by the SGPC and not by Rajoana himself. It also argued that a decision should be deferred until related appeals of other convicts are resolved, citing concerns over national security and possible law-and-order issues.
The top court has repeatedly pressed the Centre to act. In January 2025, it had set a deadline for a decision, warning that it would proceed to examine the matter on merits if no action was taken. Earlier, in May 2023, the court had declined to commute the sentence but left it to the government to decide on the mercy plea.
Subsequently, in September 2024, the court agreed to revisit the issue, noting that the continued delay had caused prolonged uncertainty and mental distress to the petitioner.