Tanvi Sinha
The Supreme Court gave the Centre one last chance to decide on the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a man involved and convicted in the death of former Punjab CM Beant Singh in 1995.
Earlier in September 2019, the government had sent a proposal stating that his death sentence would be commuted on Guru Nanak Jayanti but did nothing of the sort as was found in a December 2020 hearing of the case.
On Monday Solicitor general Tushar Mehta did state that the centre sought three weeks to examine the matter but the three-judge bench of CJI Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian demanded it to be done in two weeks instead.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohtagi said the man had been in jail for over 25 years while his mercy plea has been pending for nine years.
Rajoana was convicted of being involved in an explosion that killed the CM of Punjab at the time. He was earlier a police constable and was sentenced to death for his crimes by the High Court on which he filed a mercy plea to the President.
However even as groups from farmers protest to support the mercy plea, the family of the CM, and current Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu have said they would appeal if he was released.
