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New Delhi, October 11
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a three-judge Bench will hear on November 1 the plea by Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination case of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment.
His plea for mercy has been pending before the government for over a decade. Rajoana’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi told a Bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit that his client has been in jail for 26 years and he has a substantive case based on the judgments of the apex court that his rights under Article 21 of the Constitution (The right to protection of life and personal liberty) has been violated.
On September 28, the court had expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre’s failure to take a decision on Rajoana’s plea for his death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment.
On Tuesday, Rohatgi insisted before the Bench, also comprising Justices SR Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, that Rajoana was entitled to such commutation of penalty.
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