Supreme Court: In a Writ Petition seeking directions for commutation of death sentence of the petitioner in 1995 Bomb Blast that led to the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, killed 16 others, and left several persons injured, the Bench of B.R. Gavai, Vikram Nath* and Sanjay Karol, JJ. rejected the claim of inordinate delay in disposal of mercy petition for the fact that the same was not submitted by the petitioner himself. The Court pointed towards the pending matters and left it to the Executive to decide on such sensitive matters.
The petitioner along with others hatched a conspiracy and executed a bomb blast in 1995, who was arrested on 27-1-1996, awarded death sentence for being convicted on 27-7-2007 for offences under Sections 120-B, 302, 307 of Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 3(b), 4(b) and 5(b) and Section 6 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908. The High Court confirmed his conviction and sentence in Central Bureau of Investigation v. Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh, 2010 SCC OnLine P&H 10184 while commuting the death sentence of the co-accused into life imprisonment.
The petitioner claims that a mercy petition was preferred on 25-3-2012, Union of India denied the same saying that it was not preferred by the petitioner but the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee on behalf of the petitioner. The petitioner claimed that since no decision has been taken on his mercy petition for 10+ years, he should be granted commutation of death sentence into imprisonment for life.
The Court perused letter dated 27-9-2019 issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to Punjab Government’s Chief Secretary communicating suggestion for special remission of 8 Sikh persons under Article 161 of Constitution of India, their release from prison, and further proposal of commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment of petitioner under Article 72 of the Constitution. It was conveyed that the said communication lacks any final decision.
Based on the facts and circumstances of the instant case, the Court was of the view that the argument of pendency of mercy petition and delay of more than 10 years cannot sustain, since the petitioner himself did not submit any mercy petition, and the proposal for considering commutation of petitioner’s death sentence by Ministry of Home Affairs awaits disposal which was followed by the decision of keeping it pending till disposal of pending appeals of co-accused and CBI.
Thus, the Court rejected the claim of inordinate delay in disposal of mercy petition. The Court pointed towards its’ directions vide orders dated 4-12-2020 and 2-5-2022 for disposing of the petitioner’s mercy petition. The Court also found out that the Ministry of Home Affairs also concluded for deferring the petitioner’s death sentence commutation considering security of nation and law and order, which reflects to a decision declining to grant the same at present.
The Court expressed that it is within the domain of the Executive to take a call on such sensitive issues. However, the Court directed the competent authority to deal with the mercy petition again and take further decision as and when deemed necessary.
[Balwant Singh v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 555, Judgment dated 3-5-2023]
*Judgment authored by: Justice Vikram Nath
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner: Senior Advocate Mukul Rohtagi, Advocate on Record Rupesh Kumar, Advocate Pankhuri Shrivastava, Advocate Neelam Sharma, Advocate Rajeev Sharma, Advocate Alekshendra Sharma;
For Respondent: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, Advocate Rajat Nair, Advocate Priyanka Das, Advocate Piyush Beriwal, Advocate Divyansh H Rathi, Advocate Sharath Nambiar, Advocate Vatsal Joshi, Advocate Vinayak Sharma, Advocate Indira Bhakar, Advocate Nakul Chengappa K.K., Advocate Anuj s. Udupa, Advocate Chithransh Sharma, Advocate on Record Arvind Kumar Sharma, Advocate B.V. Balaram Das, Advocate on Record Ajay Pal, Advocate Mayank Dahiya, Advocate on Record Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Advocate on Record Anil Kumar Mishra, Advocate Anurag Singh.
