New Delhi, February 17 The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred to March 11 hearing on the plea filed by Beant Singh murder convict Jagtar Singh Hawara, seeking his transfer from Delhi's Tihar jail to any prison in Punjab.
The Babbar Khalsa terrorist is serving a life term in the case related to the killing of the former Punjab chief minister in 1995.
A bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh adjourned the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought adjournment.
On September 27 last year, the apex court issued notices to the Centre, Chandigarh administration and the Delhi and Punjab governments on Hawara's plea.
Hawara is serving the rest of his life imprisonment in the case related to the blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat at Chandigarh on August 31, 1995 in which Beant Singh and 16 others were killed.
The plea filed in the apex court said that Hawara's conduct in prison has been without blemish, except for an alleged jailbreak on January 22, 2004 when he had escaped and was later arrested. It said he should be transferred from Tihar Jail in Delhi to any other prison in Punjab as there is no case pending against him in the national capital.
"The petitioner (Hawara) is currently serving his life imprisonment in a case registered in the state of Punjab... He is a native of the state of Punjab, Fatehgarh Sahib district, and ought to be confined in a prison in Punjab," it said.
According to the plea, the petitioner had 36 false cases foisted on him after the murder and he has been acquitted in all, except one. One person convicted in the same case and also part of the jailbreak has been shifted from Tihar to a jail in Chandigarh, it said.
"The mere fact that the petitioner was considered a high-risk prisoner years ago is not a good enough reason today to keep the prisoner in Delhi and not shift him to Punjab," it said, adding that his daughter is in Punjab. Hawara's wife has died and his mother is in a coma in the US.
"The question that arises in this case is whether a person who has been accused of committing a murder in the context of serious social upheaval where tens of thousands of young Sikhs were extra-judicially executed by the state police on the instructions of the deceased Chief Minister Beant Singh, which offence has been characterised as exacerbated by his unsuccessful jail break attempt, but who has for the last 19 years led a life in prison which is without blemish can seek an order from this court for transfer to a jail in Punjab," the plea said.
In March 2007, Hawara was sentenced to death by a trial court in the case.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court in October 2010 commuted his sentence to life imprisonment with a direction that he shall not be released from jail for the rest of his life.
Hawara's petition said that the appeals filed by him as well as by the prosecution against the high court verdict are pending in the apex court.
