“You can’t keep it lingering like this,” the Supreme Court has told the Odisha government, asking it to take a decision on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in 1999.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed displeasure over the state government’s failure to inform the court whether a decision has been taken on Singh’s remission plea. “You want to reject it, you do it. You take a decision. We will deal with it. You can’t keep it lingering like this,” the bench said.
The counsel appearing for the state government told the bench that a letter seeking adjournment has been circulated in the matter as the advocate-on-record was unwell.
Referring to its August 19 order passed in the matter, the bench said it had directed the State Sentence Review Board to take a decision and apprise the court of it.
“Last time also, time was granted to decide on the application. You convey to us the decision,” the bench said, adding that the top court had specifically said in its August 19 order that the authority take a decision on the remission plea.
“You can’t avoid taking a decision. For two years, you are delaying the matter. Yes or no, you take a decision,” the bench said.
The counsel appearing for the state requested the bench to list the matter for hearing on September 17.
“We are not going to adjourn it on the next date,” the bench said, adding, “You take a decision and inform us, or we will summon your officer”.
