New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 3) put off Jagtar Singh Hawara's plea to be shifted from Delhi's Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab by three months, after an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report warned that the transfer could affect the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. A bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice PB Varale will now hear the matter after three months, once the elections are over, LiveLaw reported from the courtroom.

Source: LiveLaw

The IB report was placed before the bench on Tuesday, as directed at the last hearing, when the Court had asked the Delhi government to obtain the Bureau's inputs after the Punjab government raised law-and-order concerns over the proposed transfer. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Delhi government, cited the report's concerns over law and order and the potential impact of a transfer order on the state elections.

Justice Sundresh observed that the Court normally has no difficulty in such matters, including on jail visits, but described the IB report as very “damning”. “Normally we have no difficulty, but if the investigating agency says it's very damning, especially in the present scenario when the issues are alive, here and abroad. Second, it will have a huge impact on the ongoing elections. We don't want our orders to be...” the judge said, according to LiveLaw's courtroom report. A second report of Tuesday's hearing, carried by NewsLocker, likewise said the IB opposed the shift citing possible ramifications for the impending Assembly elections and Hawara's high-risk status.

Source: NewsLocker

Senior Advocate S Muralidhar, appearing for Hawara, objected to the Ministry of Home Affairs' stand that Tihar is a more secure prison for high-security prisoners than any jail in Punjab. He told the Court that Hawara's mother is in her nineties and in serious condition, sought at least a jail visit so he could meet her, and said a parole plea filed by Hawara is pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

When the bench flagged the election concern, Muralidhar suggested that if the elections were the issue, the matter could be taken up after three months, when the elections are over. The Court accepted the suggestion and adjourned the plea. No transfer order was passed on Tuesday, and Hawara remains lodged in Tihar Jail.

Why Hawara sought the transfer

Hawara's plea says the case in which he is serving his sentence was registered in Punjab, no case against him is pending in Delhi, and his daughter lives in Punjab. He has sought the shift primarily so that his elderly mother, whose condition is stated to be serious, can meet him. At the earlier hearing on October 13, the Punjab government had opposed the transfer in an affidavit, saying it could affect peace, tranquillity and law and order in the state, and the bench had said a decision could not be taken without the IB's assessment.

Source: Bar and Bench (Oct 13 hearing)

Background: the Beant Singh assassination case

Hawara is serving life imprisonment for the rest of his life for his role in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was killed with 16 others in a bomb blast outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. A trial court sentenced him to death in 2007; the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the conviction in October 2010 but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of his life, and appeals against that judgment are still pending before the Supreme Court. Hawara had escaped from Chandigarh's Burail Jail in January 2004 by digging a tunnel and was re-arrested in Delhi in 2005 — a jailbreak the government has repeatedly cited against the transfer.

What happens next

The transfer plea will now be heard after three months, after the Punjab Assembly elections are over. Hawara's separate parole plea remains pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, his counsel told the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The IB's assessment — and the Punjab government's stated law-and-order objection — will remain central when the bench takes up the transfer question again.