The Odisha State Sentence Review Board has declined the plea for premature release filed by Ravindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is undergoing a life sentence for the 1999 killing of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons. The decision assumes significance as the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the matter on September 17.
The State’s decision comes after months of delay in processing the remission request, despite repeated judicial directions requiring the Odisha authorities to arrive at a definitive decision. The Supreme Court had earlier expressed considerable disquiet over the continued pendency of the plea and directed the State either to accept or reject the application instead of allowing it to remain unresolved.
A Bench comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi had previously taken a stern view of the administrative delay. At the hearing on September 8, the Court indicated that senior officials of the Odisha Government could be required to appear if the State failed to take a decision before the matter was listed again.
Justice Manoj Misra, addressing the State counsel, made it clear that the authorities were required to bring the issue to a conclusion. If the State intended to reject the application, the Court observed, it should do so formally so that the judicial proceedings could move forward, rather than permitting the matter to remain in indefinite administrative suspension.
Singh has spent more than 26 years in custody. Through his plea before the Supreme Court, he sought consideration of his case for premature release under the remission policy applicable to him, placing reliance, inter alia, on the substantial period already undergone and his conduct while incarcerated.
The consideration of his remission application had been deferred on several occasions while the State Sentence Review Board awaited various reports and materials pertaining to his claim. The Supreme Court, during the proceedings, had emphasised that procedural or administrative delays could not be allowed to indefinitely stall consideration of a prisoner’s remission request.
Singh was convicted for his involvement in the January 1999 killings of Graham Staines and his sons, Philip and Timothy. The three victims were set ablaze while sleeping inside a vehicle parked outside a church in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Singh’s conviction and sentence of life imprisonment were subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.
With the State Board having now rejected the remission request, its decision is likely to be placed before the Supreme Court when the matter comes up on September 17. The Court may examine the decision in the backdrop of Singh’s plea for premature release, the length of his incarceration and the prolonged administrative pendency surrounding his application.
The proceedings also bring into focus the legal framework governing remission. Premature release does not constitute an indefeasible entitlement of a convict; however, a remission application must be examined by the competent authority in accordance with the governing policy and culminate in a lawful, reasoned and procedurally compliant determination.
The State’s latest decision therefore places the remission issue squarely before the Supreme Court, which will now have the opportunity to examine both the merits of the rejection and the circumstances surrounding the prolonged consideration of Singh’s application.
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