Kehar Singh v/s. Union of India
- Santoshi Karasi
- May 24, 2020
Content :
Kehar Singh, an Assistant in the Directorate General of Supply and Disposal, NewDelhi, was accused of conspiracy in the killing of the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi on 31 October, 1984. Later, after two years, on 22 January, 1986,Kehar Singh was convicted of an offence under Section 120-B read with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. He was sentenced to death by the Additional Sessions Judge, New Delhi.He appealed to challenge the death sentence which was rejected by the Delhi High Court. Further, a subsequent appeal was made to the Supreme Court by means of Special Leave Petition, however, the same was also dismissed. Later, a review petition and writ petition were also dismissed.
After few days, the son of Kehar Singh, named as Rajinder Singh, presented a petition to the President of India for the grant of pardon to Kehar Singh under Article 72 of the Constitution of India on the grounds that he was innocent and the verdict of the Courts was erroneous. The Petition also included a prayer that the representatives of Kehar Singh should be allowed to see the President in person and explain to him the whole situation. In furtherance of the same, the Counsel of Kehar Singh also wrote several e-mails to the president.
In revert; The President rejected the petition under Article 72 of the Constitution by saying that he cannot go into the merits of a case which is finally decided by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. After the rejection of the mercy petition, Rajinder Singh filed the Petition before the Delhi High court praying for restraining the respondent from executing the sentence of death but the same was dismissed. Immediately upon Dismissal, petitioners moved to Supreme Court by filing Special Leave Petition under Article 32 and the court decided to entertain the writ petition and directed that the execution of Kehar Singh should not be carried out in the meanwhile.
