The Supreme Court has directed the Odisha government to ensure that the State Sentence Review Committee takes a final decision on the remission application of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, before the next date of hearing on August 19.
The Bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi adjourned the matter on Tuesday after the State sought a short adjournment, informing the Court that the State Sentence Review Committee, which is examining Singh’s application for premature release, had sought certain records that were yet to be made available. The State submitted that the Committee required additional documents, including records from the district court and Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh, where Singh belongs, before arriving at a final decision.
Recording the State’s submission, the Bench observed that since the Committee was awaiting the relevant records, it was appropriate to adjourn the matter to August 19. At the same time, the Court expressed the expectation that the competent authority would take a final decision on the remission application in the meantime. During the hearing, the Bench also indicated that the State should endeavour to complete the exercise before August 15.
Appearing for the State, Advocate P.V. Yogeswaran informed the Court that the Sentence Review Committee had already considered Singh’s case along with several other remission applications but required the additional records before concluding the process.
The Supreme Court had, in March 2025, directed the Odisha Government to consider Singh’s application for premature release, following which the matter was placed before the State Sentence Review Committee.
Singh approached the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking premature release under the Odisha Premature Release Policy, 2022. He has contended that he has undergone more than 26 years of actual imprisonment, maintained satisfactory conduct during incarceration and fulfilled the eligibility criteria prescribed under the State’s remission policy. He has also sought a direction to the State Government to consider his case in accordance with the 2022 Guidelines for Premature Release of Life Convicts.
According to the State’s remission policy, convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment become eligible for consideration of premature release after completing 25 years of incarceration.
The Odisha Government informed the Court that Singh’s remission application remains under active consideration before the competent authority. Reports placed before the Court indicate that his case has previously been examined by five Sentence Review Committees, all of which rejected his request for remission, with the latest rejection taking place in February 2024.
In his writ petition, filed through Advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, Singh contended that the offence was committed in a fit of youthful rage and asserted that he had since undergone reformation and was genuinely remorseful for his actions.
Invoking the reformative theory of punishment, he argued that prolonged incarceration had reformed him and sought an opportunity to reintegrate into society through service-oriented work after serving a substantial period of imprisonment. He also contended that the authorities were under a legal obligation to consider his remission application under the Odisha Government’s 2022 policy and argued that failure to do so infringed his right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petitioner further relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment granting premature release to A.G. Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in support of his plea for remission.
The case stems from the intervening night of January 22 and 23, 1999, when a mob led by Dara Singh set fire to a station wagon in Manoharpur village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district in which Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy, were asleep. All three were burnt alive in the attack, which attracted national and international condemnation.
The investigation was initially conducted by the Odisha Crime Branch before being transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A CBI court sentenced Dara Singh to death in 2003. However, the Orissa High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 after holding that the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category, and the Supreme Court upheld the commuted sentence in 2011.
Another convict in the case, Mahendra Hembram, was granted premature release in April 2025 after completing 25 years of imprisonment on the ground of good conduct. Eleven other accused were acquitted by the Orissa High Court for lack of evidence, while one juvenile accused was tried separately under the juvenile justice framework and released in 2008.
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