Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death by a Sessions Court
A decade after Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death by a Sessions Court for his role in former CM Beant Singh’s assassination, his sister today moved the High Court for releasing him after commuting the sentence to life imprisonment.
The petition filed against the Union of India and other respondents by Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana through counsel Gursharan Kaur Mann was placed before the Bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain this morning. After preliminary hearing, Justice Jain adjourned the hearing to November 2 for Mann to address the court on the issue of locus standi — the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court.
She claimed that Rajoana had been languishing in prison for 22 years. Almost a decade had passed since the death sentence was pronounced and seven years had lapsed since it was confirmed.
Mann added the petitioner-sister believed that Rajoana had experienced immense pain and suffering due to the delay in carrying out of the sentence after its confirmation by the HC. “This extraordinary and unjustified delay in the carrying out of his death sentence has also caused physical and mental agony to the petitioner and her family,” she said.
Mann argued that Rajoana refused to seek “legal representation” during the course of his entire trial. He did not file an appeal against his death sentence, which was confirmed by the HC on October 12, 2010. He did not even prefer a Special Leave Petition against the HC judgment.