Supreme Court to Govt: File affidavit on Balwant Singh Rajoana’s petition

THE SUPREME Court asked the Centre on Wednesday to file within two weeks its counter affidavit on a plea by Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination case of the then Punjab CM Beant Singh, seeking commutation of his death sentence due to the delay in deciding his mercy petition.

“It is made clear that no further time will be granted for the same,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi said. “Why have you not filed your counter affidavit so far?… You file your counter affidavit, otherwise his allegations are uncontroverted. You place your affidavit whatever you want to say,” it said. Rajoana was convicted of killing Beant Singh and 12 others on August 31, 1995, and was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special CBI court.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee filed a mercy petition on his behalf in March 2012.