“If You Don't Decide, We Will”: Supreme Court Pulls Up Odisha Over Delay In Dara Singh's Remission
The Court has sought for a decision by September 2.
The Supreme Court today(August 19) gave one last opportunity to the Orissa Sentence Review Board to decide on the premature release of Dara Singh, aka Rabindra Kumar Pal, who is serving a life sentence in the murder case of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in 199. It orally said that on next hearing if no decision is taken, the Court will take its own decision.
At the last hearing, the Court asked the Odisha Government to decide on the premature release by August 19. However, today a bench comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi was informed that no decision has been taken yet. The advocate initially sought a passover, but when the Court questioned him on why no decision has been taken, he placed on record a letter from the Directorate General of Prisons. The Court questioned asked the letter has been placed when the decision of the review board is relevant.
The advocate informed that the DG Police has mentioned that information regarding antecedents has been called for from the State of Uttar Pradesh, where he belongs.
Justice Misra orally remarked that this Court will not tolerate indecisiveness and directed the review board to decide his plea by September 2, or else the Court will decide his plea. "You take a decision whatever you want or else we will take a decision...We are not concerned how you are communicating; just take a decision. We can't tolerate this avoiding taking a decision," he said.
The Court ordered: "This matter has been adjourned time and again to enable the respondents to take a decision on the plea of remission of sentence awarded to the petitioner who is incarcerated for a period exceeding 26 years. It appears that when the matter was adjourned last, the State Sentence Review Board was in the process of taking a decision on the petitioner's plea. Based on that, the matter was adjourned. Today, the learned counsel for the respondent has placed before us a letter of the Directorate of Prison and Correctional Services addressed to the counsel, wherein he stated that the report from the district jail, Kendujhar, [Orissa] is yet to be received. We are not informed of the decision of the sentence review board. List this matter on 2 September. The sentence review board should take a decision and apprise us."
The convict Singh is seeking remission of his sentence and stated that he has served more than 25 years in prison. As per the State's remission policy, remission can be considered for convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment after completion of 25 years of incarceration.
Dara Singh was sentenced to death by the trial court in 2003. In 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2011. In his writ petition, Singh, represented by Advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, submitted that he committed the crime in a "fit of youthful rage" and was now repentant of his acts.
Relying on the reformative theory of punishment, Singh pleaded that he be allowed premature release from prison, to go back to society as a reformed person. He placed reliance on the Supreme Court's 2022 judgment allowing the premature release of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The crime happened on 22 January 1999, at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district, Odisha, when a mob led by Dara Singh set fire to Graham Staines's vehicle in which he and his two sons, Philip (aged 10) and Timothy (aged 6), were sleeping.
Case Details: RABINDRA KUMAR PAL @ DARA SINGH Versus STATE OF ODISHA | Diary No. 11407-2024