New Delhi — The Supreme Court will hear Monday a petition by Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking commutation of his death sentence in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. Rajoana argues that the over 12-year-long delay in deciding his mercy petition is grounds for commutation of his death penalty.

A special bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai, P.K. Mishra and K.V. Viswanathan will preside over the hearing, according to the Supreme Court’s website. The hearing was previously deferred to Jan. 20 to allow the Union government additional time to gather input from various agencies, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, citing the case’s “sensitivities.” The Union government was granted four weeks to decide Rajoana’s mercy petition.

The Supreme Court had previously requested President Droupadi Murmu to consider Rajoana’s mercy petition within two weeks on Nov. 18. This directive followed the court’s rejection of Rajoana’s plea for commutation in May 2023, stating that such decisions fall within the executive branch’s purview. The court clarified that it would consider Rajoana’s application for interim release if the mercy petition remained undecided within the stipulated timeframe. However, the order was not uploaded following an urgent request by Mehta, who highlighted the “sensitivities” involved and confirmed that the relevant files were with the Union Home Ministry, not the President’s Secretariat.

Rajoana was convicted in July 2007 for his role in the August 1995 bomb blast that killed Singh and 16 others, injuring dozens more. He was sentenced to death alongside co-defendant Jagtar Singh Hawara, who later had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the High Court in December 2010. While other co-defendants appealed their sentences, Rajoana did not. It is important to note that Rajoana himself never submitted a mercy petition; the alleged mercy petition of 2012 was filed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.