- Central government asked for time to make a decision
4 p.m. News Network
New Delhi. The Supreme Court gave the central government four weeks to decide on the pending mercy petition of Babbar Khalsa supporter Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted of the 1995 murder of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, even as the Center stayed it. Given the sensitivity of the issue, the current situation is not conducive to resolving it. A bench comprising Justices Bhushan R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Vishwanathan adjourned hearing on Rajoana’s petition following arguments by SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre. He said the matter is delicate.
Mehta told the court that consultation with multiple agencies was necessary. We need some more time. Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, representing the CBI, reiterated these concerns and said the situation is not yet conducive to taking a decision. The court accepted the Centre’s plea and adjourned the case for four weeks. Rajoana, a former Punjab police constable, was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role as a substitute attacker in the suicide attack outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Beant Singh and 16 others died in the bomb explosion. The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the death sentence in 2010. Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged in 2012, but it was stayed after the SGPC filed a mercy petition on his behalf. Over the years, successive governments have cited national security concerns and the sensitive political environment in Punjab as reasons for delaying a decision on the petition.
