March 30, 2012: The two mercy petitions by Sikh organisations for former Punjab CM Beant Singh's killer Balwant Singh Rajoana could get derailed if the death row convict made a contradictory plea to the President seeking no clemency.
The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGPC) created a Catch-22 situation for the Centre when they filed the mercy pleas for Babbar Khalsa terrorist Rajoana, though he has already made public his desire to be hanged.
The Centre had no option but to process these mercy petitions in accordance with provisions in the Constitution. But the stay on his hanging wouldn't hold if Rajoana writes to the President for an "immediate hanging".
This is quite possible because Rajoana has already written to the SGPC and the Punjab government, criticising them for politicising his case and appealing for mercy without his consent.
Moreover, the Punjab government has no jurisdiction over the case because the assassination took place in Chandigarh, a Union territory. The office of the Chandigarh administrator, Shivraj Patil, would hence be crucial in this matter.
Rajoana was convicted by the trial court in Chandigarh in 2007, but he has never filed an appeal in a higher court against the death sentence awarded to him.
The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over mercy petitions being decided on political considerations. "What has happened over the past four days in a particular state is a telling situation. If a decision was taken in appropriate time, public exchequer would have been spared of crores of rupees... Entire thing is a drama," a Bench presided over by Justice G.S. Singhvi said, while making an oblique reference to the protests over Rajoana.
The court said that it had been seen that accused found guilty of terrorism had found support from political parties. The observation, in the backdrop of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal's visit to Delhi for relief for Rajoana, came during the hearing on a petition by another death-row convict, Devender Pal Singh Bhullar.
In Punjab, police were forced to fire at a mob in the border town of Gurdaspur. A man died in the firing in the police's attempt to control two groups clashing over Rajoana. The government imposed curfew on the town to prevent any possible escalation of tension between the two communities.
Trouble began after the Shiv Sena and other organisations protested against the registration of cases against more than a dozen Hindus who were involved in a scuffle with the members of another community on Wednesday during a general strike in Punjab over Rajoana.
Reports from Amritsar said the police put several Shiv Sainiks under preventive arrest who attempted to march towards the Golden Temple on Thursday. The police already rounded up several hardline Sikh leaders, including the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh and president of Khalsa Action Committee Bhai Mohkam Singh.
Punjab remained tense after radical Sikh outfits protested against a trial court's order to hang Rajoana on Saturday morning. However, the execution was suspended by the President following a clemency petition moved by the SGPC.