Pendency of appeals by co-accused has no bearing on Presidential pardon granted by Centre to death-row convict: Supreme Court

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde said on Friday that once the Central government has decided to recommend Presidential pardon for a death row convict, then pendency of appeals of his co-accused in Supreme Court cannot be a reason to delay the process initiated under Article 72..The bench which also comprised Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian gave Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj two weeks time to take instructions on commuting the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict who has been in jail for 25 years.."Appeal pending by other co accused has no relevance to decision by HMO to commute death sentence of some convicts taken to commemorate 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak," the Court said.Singh was convicted for the assassination of ex-Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh. The Ministry of Home Affairs (HMO) had, by its letter of September 2019, written to the Chief Secretary of Punjab that on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nayak Dev ji, release of some prisoners is proposed. Balwant Singh was among the select few..However the ASG informed Supreme Court on Friday that the proposal was not sent to President since appeal of other co-accused in the case is pending and that Singh himself has not filed an appeal.."It is not denied that petitioner has not filed any appeal thus there is no question of any appeal pending in this Court. We find it obvious that the fact of pending appeals at the behest of other co accused would have no relevance to the proposal intended to be sent for consideration under Article 72" said the CJI..The petitioner is serving imprisonment since 1996 and it has been 25 years he is in jail. Singh has served 13 years out of 25 under death sentence and total of 8 years for the President to decide his mercy petition..The petition before the Supreme Court submits that the delay by the executive in this case is "inexcusable."."Delay caused by circumstances beyond the prisoners’ control mandates commutation of death sentence. This view has been upheld by the larger bench (4 Hon’ble Judges) of this Hon’ble Court in the case of Navneet Kaur v State - (2014) 7 SCC 264 wherein the Hon’ble Court has commuted death sentence of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar into life imprisonment on the ground of delay of 08 years in disposal of his mercy petition," the petition said. .The petition filed through advocate Rupesh Kumar further stated that keeping the petitioner in "suspense while consideration of his mercy petition by the President of India for more than 8 years is an agony for him which has created adverse physical conditions and psychological stresses.".[Read Petition].(Read order)