The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court it “has decided to defer taking any decision” on the mercy plea of Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced to death for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, “as it has a serious potential of compromising the security of the nation or creating a law and order situation”. In an affidavit filed before the top court, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that “Punjab being a border state…any decision on the mercy petitions” filed on Rajoana’s behalf “have to be taken keeping in view the overall security scenario and terrorism perspective of the state”. As such, it had sought inputs from agencies on the basis of which it had decided to defer the decision, the ministry added. Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable from Rajoana Kalan village of Ludhiana, was convicted of involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 12 others on August 31, 1995. A special CBI court had sentenced him to death in 2007. Days before he was to be hanged in March 2012, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on his behalf which remains pending with the President of India till date. In September 2019, the MHA wrote to Punjab proposing commutation of his death sentence into life imprisonment to commemorate 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. The proposal, however, was never implemented. In September 2020, Rajoana moved SC seeking that his mercy petition be taken up immediately for disposal and MHA’s 2019 proposal be implemented. Rajoana is lodged in jail for 26 years and has been out on parole once (for an hour) to attend his adoptive father's bhog ceremony in January this year. Appearing for the Centre Tuesday, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj told a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India U U Lalit and Justices Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi that it was a “peculiar situation” in view of Punjab’s location as a border state. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Rajoana however said that his client has been in jail for 26 years now and added that the MHA affidavit “is an apology”. The bench pointed out that appeals by the co-accused against conviction are pending before the SC and wondered why Rajoana’s plea on the death sentence should not be listed with along with them and heard together. But Rohatgi said he did not want his case to be clubbed with any other and would like to buttress the argument that he was in jail for 26 years. Acceding to the request, the SC listed the matter for hearing next on November 1.
