The Odisha government has rejected the remission plea of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.
A Bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi heard Singh’s plea alleging prolonged delay by the State in deciding his request for premature release.
The State informed the Supreme Court that the competent authority rejected the remission plea on August 31, 2026. Taking note of the rejection order, the Bench permitted Singh to amend his petition. The court instructed his counsel to obtain a copy of the order, formulate their grounds for challenge, update the plea, and present their arguments.
The Court granted two weeks to Singh’s counsel to file the amendment application and listed the matter after three weeks.
The case relates to the January 1999 killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip and Timothy, at Manoharpur in Odisha. Dara Singh was convicted of leading the mob that set fire to the vehicle in which the three were sleeping. A trial court sentenced him to death in 2003, but the Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in 2011.
Singh subsequently sought remission of his sentence, citing his age, prolonged incarceration and alleged reformation. His plea before the Supreme Court primarily concerned the delay by the Odisha authorities in deciding his remission request. The State has now rejected the plea, paving the way for Singh to challenge that decision before the Supreme Court.
A trial court awarded Singh the death penalty in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted it to life imprisonment in 2005, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.
Singh later sought remission, with his counsel, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, submitting that he is over 60, has spent more than 24 years in custody without parole and has undergone reformation.
The Supreme Court had earlier criticised the Odisha government for keeping the remission plea pending for over two years and, on September 8, warned that senior officials could be summoned if the Sentence Review Board failed to take a decision.
With the State’s rejection now formally on record, the Supreme Court will next consider Singh’s amended challenge.
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