The Punjab government presented strong opposition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday against a plea from Jagtar Singh Hawara, who is currently serving a life sentence for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995. Hawara sought a transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to a prison in Punjab, which the state government has contested.
The legal arguments unfolded before a bench consisting of Justices B.R. Gavai and K. Vinod Chandran. The counsel for Punjab highlighted that Hawara had previously been incarcerated in a Chandigarh jail, questioning the basis for his transfer plea to Punjab.
During the proceedings, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Hawara, was asked by the bench whether Chandigarh was included as a party respondent in the plea, to which Gonsalves confirmed plans to implead the Union Territory. Subsequently, the court granted permission to add Chandigarh and issued a notice to the UT administration, demanding a response within four weeks.
Punjab’s Advocate General, Gurminder Singh, pointed out that Hawara’s earlier plea for a similar transfer was dismissed by the Delhi High Court in 2018. Singh argued that the Punjab prison manual, on which Hawara’s plea is based, does not apply as his trial took place in Chandigarh.
Gonsalves contended that the plea was strictly limited to seeking a transfer to any prison in Punjab, emphasizing that Hawara’s only family member, his daughter, resides in Punjab, which substantiates his request.
The backdrop of this legal battle includes Hawara’s life imprisonment sentence, upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in October 2010, after a death sentence by a trial court in March 2007. The High Court’s decision stipulated that Hawara would not be released for the remainder of his life, with appeals against this verdict still pending before the Supreme Court.
Hawara’s plea asserts his commendable conduct in prison, except for an escape incident in 2004, after which he was re-arrested. His legal team argues that no pending cases against him in the national capital justify a continued stay in Tihar Jail, and his record in custody has been unblemished for the past 19 years.
