New Delhi, Aug 19 The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Odisha government for not taking a decision on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in 1999.
"You take a decision whatever you want to. Otherwise we will take our own. If you don't take a decision, we will," a bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi told the counsel appearing for the state.
"We can't tolerate this avoiding taking a decision," the bench observed.
It noted that the matter has been adjourned time and again to enable the authority to take a decision on the plea of remission of sentence given to Singh, who has been incarcerated for a period exceeding 26 years.
The bench observed that when the matter was adjourned on July 14, the State Sentence Review Board was in the process of taking a decision on Singh's plea.
It said the counsel representing the state has now placed before it a letter of the Directorate of Prisons and Correctional Services addressed to the lawyer and stating that a report from the Keonjhar district jail is yet to be received.
"We are not informed about the decision of the Sentence Review Board," the top court said.
While posting the matter for September 2, the bench said the board should take a decision and apprise the court.
"We are not concerned about how you are communicating, to what authority you are communicating. You just take a decision," the bench observed.
The bench said, "But don't try and dodge us by giving us the letter... How is it relevant? It is the board which has to take a decision."
Singh, 63, approached the top court in 2024 seeking premature release on the ground that he has served over 24 years in jail and "repented" for his action taken in a fit of "youthful rage".
He said in his plea that he believes in karmic philosophy and prays for an opportunity to reform his character in order to cure the effects of bad karma he has gained through his actions.
While hearing the matter in July, the top court had given the Odisha government a month to decide on Singh's remission plea.
A mob led by Singh attacked Staines and his two sons -- 11-year-old Philip and 8-year-old Timothy -- while they slept in their station wagon and set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.
Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003.
The Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.
Seeking the court's mercy, Singh assured that he would give back to society through "service-oriented actions".
He also sought a direction to the state government to consider his case in accordance with the guidelines for premature release of life convicts issued in 2022 in the three cases in which he was convicted.
Singh, who is lodged in the Keonjhar district jail, said he had undergone more than the qualified period of sentence of 14 years under the April 19, 2022, policy and spent over 24 years of actual imprisonment without remission.
He also submitted that the appropriate authorities were under legal obligation to consider his case for premature release under the "Guideline for Premature Release 2022" passed by the Odisha government.
The authorities, he said, failed to act in accordance with the rules due to which his right to liberty, as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution, was jeopardised.
Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Singh, is also serving life imprisonment in the case. Eleven other accused were acquitted by the high court due to lack of evidence.
Staines and his wife Gladys worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients.
Gladys Staines, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005, said she had forgiven the killers of her husband and sons, and held no bitterness against them.
