NEW DELHI– All last minute efforts by Akali Dal leader Simranjit Singh Mann to delay the hanging of Jinda and Sukha, assassins of former Army Chief of Staff Gen Arun S. Vadiya, came to naught late onOct8, when Supreme Court Chief Justice M.H. Kania refused to meet the Akali leader.
A strong posse of police had kept a motley crowd of 50 supporters of Mann and lawyers at bay for most of the evening outside Kania’s official residence on 5 Krishna Meon Marg. Constable force told the Akali leader that the Chief Justice does not desire to meet him but later changed their stand and said that “he is not yet home.”
After camping for about an hour outside Kanla’s house, Mann seems to had given up hope of averting the death sentence awarded to Jinda and Sukha.
The hanging was scheduled and took take place in Pune Central Jail at 4 a.m. on Friday.
Soon after Mann left here for Chandigarh where he is scheduled to address the Sikh Panthic Committee on the hanging issue. He told his counsel, Dr.B. D Wadhera, in the presence of journalists outside the residence of the Chief Justice “I leave you to the mercy of god.”
Wadhera later told reporters that the Chief Justice had instructed his personal staff to pass orders that no other petition could be admitted for hearing unless it is put forth by the convicts themselves and not to take action on any other petition filed by a third party.
Top police officials said patrolling had been intensified and a close vigil was kept on all exit and entry points in the city. Also the convoy of Mann travelling by road to Chandigarh is being closely monitored by security agencies,
Earlier in the day two “pardon petitions” were filed by the Lt. Gen A.S. Aurora (Retd) and Puran Singh Hundal, member of Punjab and Harayna Bar Council in the apex court.
However, undeterred by the court’s refusal to hear the petitions, Akali leaders, including S.S.Mann waited in the lawns of the Supreme Court till late on Thursday evening with the hope of receiving some indication of the petitions being taken up for hearing.
After waiting in vain the Sikh leaders drove up to the residence of the Chief Justice in a convoy and sought an appointment with Justice Kania to determine the fate of the petitions.
Police who cordoned off the residence later told the leaders, including Mann, after consultation with the Chief Justice’s staff that there was to be no hearing as far as he was concerned. The leaders were asked by the security men to contact the register of the court for further details saying he had been instructed to deal with the nations. When someone in the delegation pointed out that the registrar (judicial) had made it clear that he had no indication of the fate of the petitions just minutes ago, the security officials expressed their inability to do anything more in the matter.
The legal implication of filing of “pardon petitions” before the President and registration of fresh petitions in a capital sentence case is that the execution of the concerned convict’s stands automatically stayed till their disposal.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 23, 1992
