Shweta Tambade
Supreme Court questioned the Centre over the delay in sending the proposal to the President for commuting the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajaona who was convicted in the 1995 case of assassination of Former Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh.
Chief Justice Bobde asked the Centre to inform it as to when the authority would send the proposal regarding the commuting of the death sentence to the President under the Article 72 of the Indian Constitution which deals with power of President to grant pardon, suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.
On 7th September last year, Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to the Punjab chief secretary intimating that a proposal would be sent to the President to commute the death sentence of the Rajaona.
The bench also comprising Justices A S Bopanna, and V Ramasubramaniam, asked solicitor general K M Nataraj appearing for the center as to why the proposal has not been sent till now.
The top court was hearing Rajoana’s plea seeking direction for speedy disposal of MHA’s proposal to commute his death sentence.
A former Punjab police constable Raojana, was convicted for his participation with an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995.