Chandigarh, Punjab (March 22, 2012): As per media reports the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions for stay on the operation of an order passed by Chandigarh additional sessions judge on March 5, 2012, for the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana in Beant Singh assassination case on March 31.
The High Court is reported to have dismissed the petition on technical ground. The court said the petitioner had no ‘locus standi’ in the case.The PIL, filed by an NGO, Lawyer for Human Rights International, took the plea that the execution be stayed since judgment vide which the death sentence of Rajoana has been confirmed is under appeal in the Supreme Court.
The petitioner’s lawyer Advocate Navkiran Singh said they planned to challenge the high court decision in the Supreme Court.
The PIL had came up for hearing before a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gagoi on Wednesday, which recused from hearing it and referred the plea to another bench for hearing on March 22.
The PIL also said that the special leave petition filed by Central Bureau of Investigation against the conviction of Jagtar Singh Hawara, another accused in the same case, had been admitted in the apex court on December 5, 2011 and was pending.