Supreme Court rejects the plea of Balwant Singh seeking to Commute the Death Penalty to Life Imprisonment.

Advertisements

Spread the love

Post Views: 120

The former Punjab Police Constable Balwant Singh was convicted due to his engagement in the explosion outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat that took the life of Beant Singh, former chief minister of Punjab with 16 others in 1995. Therefore, the special court in 2007 gave the death sentence to Balwant Singh and Jagtar Singh Hawara. The Capital punishment of the convicted got scheduled on March 31, 2012. But the Sikh religious committee filed for the mercy petition. But the President forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to review upon it[1]. There was no response recorded in reaction to the mercy petition of Balwant Singh. During 2019, the government was in the conversation to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment on the occasion of the 550^th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji[2]. As a result, the Supreme Court reserved its decision in response to the petition filed by the side of the convict[3]. But such initiative remained inapplicable.

However, the Supreme Court recently released its latest verdict regarding such a matter. Justice Vikram Nath held that it cannot commute the death sentence of Balwant Singh to life imprisonment. Furthermore, the court notified the centre to review the mercy petition of the convicted and contemplate it in case it feels necessary on reasonable factors. Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs was not approving the mercy petition because it was challenging the nation’s security as observed by the court. The bench further held that it is the duty of the executive to consider such sensitive issues, the court is not fit for such matter.[4]

The representation of Balwant Singh done by the senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi. He framed his statement of arguments and put them before the court. He stated that the mercy petition was pending for a decade which has infringed the fundamental rights of the convicted. Moreover, he referred to the case of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar in which the Supreme Court commuted his punishment due to unnecessary postponement of the mercy petition by the government[5].

Aniruddh Atul Garg, a student of ILSR, GLA University, Mathura, 2^nd Semester, an intern at Legal Vidhiya