Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Odisha government for delaying a decision on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in 1999.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed displeasure over the state government’s failure to inform the court whether a decision has been taken on Singh’s plea.”You want to reject it, you do it. You take a decision. We will deal with it. You can’t keep it lingering like this,” the bench said.
The counsel for the State told the bench that a letter seeking adjournment has been circulated as the advocate-on-record was unwell.Referring to its August 19 order, the bench said it had directed the State Sentence Review Board to take a decision and apprise the court. “Last time also, time was granted to decide on the application. You convey to us the decision,” the bench said, adding that the top court had specifically said the authority must decide on the remission plea.
“You can’t avoid taking a decision. For two years, you are delaying the matter. Yes or no, you take a decision,” the bench observed. The state counsel requested the bench to list the matter on September 17.”We are not going to adjourn it on the next date,” the bench said, adding, “You take a decision and inform us, or we will summon your officer.
“The court posted the matter for hearing on September 17 and directed the respondent to inform it about the decision taken pursuant to its August 19 order. While hearing the matter on August 19, the top court had pulled up the Odisha government for not taking a decision on Singh’s remission plea. It had noted that the matter had been adjourned repeatedly to enable the authority to decide. Singh, 63, has been incarcerated for more than 26 years. He approached the top court in 2024 seeking premature release on the ground that he has served over 24 years in jail and “repented” for his action taken in a fit of “youthful rage”.
In his plea, he said he believed in karmic philosophy and prayed for an opportunity to reform his character and cure the effects of bad karma. While hearing the matter in July, the top court had given the Odisha government a month to decide on Singh’s plea. A mob led by Singh had attacked Staines and his two sons — 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy — while they slept in their station wagon and set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.
Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.Seeking mercy, Singh assured that he would give back to society through “service-oriented actions”.
He also sought direction to the state government to consider his case as per guidelines for premature release of life convicts issued in 2022.Singh, lodged in Keonjhar district jail, said he had undergone more than the qualified period of 14 years under the April 19, 2022 policy and spent over 24 years of actual imprisonment without remission.
He submitted that authorities were under legal obligation to consider his case for premature release under the “Guideline for Premature Release 2022” and failure to act has jeopardised his right to liberty under Article 21.Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Singh, is also serving life sentence. Eleven other accused were acquitted by the high court due to lack of evidence.
Staines and his wife Gladys worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients. Gladys Staines, who was awarded Padma Shri in 2005, had said she had forgiven the killers and held no bitterness against them.
