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New twist in Kiranjit related case: High Court quashes pardon
WSN Network

CHANDIGARH: In a development that has sent shock waves among activists and public aware of the twists and turns in the Kiranjit rape and murder case that shook Punjab in 1997, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday has set aside the pardon granted by the Punjab Governor to three murder convicts last year. Narain Dutt, Prem Kumar and Manjit Singh were pardoned by the government following representations against their conviction in a murder case. Both were prominent members of the action committee that fought to get justice for Kiranjit who was raped and murdered. While her tormentors received life terms, the three were later implicated in a case of murder of a kin of those accused in Kiranjit case.

Kiranjit of Mehalkalan near Barnala was a teenaged senior secondary schoolgirl whose tragic fate had united thousands and pressurised political bigwigs and jolted Punjab. At one stage, the government itself represented before the court that it wanted to withdraw the charges against the three falsely implicated people but the judiciary did not oblige. Later, the Amarinder government moved the case for pardon and then the Badal government actually got the pardon move cleared.

Right from the beginning, the Kiranjit case drew cross party support and the three -- Narain Dutt, Prem Kumar and Manjit Singh – were backed even by all factions of the Kisan Unions too.

But the Punjab HC bench comprising Justices A.K. Goel and S.D. Anand, despite conceding that there was no dispute about the legal position that granting pardon was a constitutional power with the Governor and carried no limitation and could be exercised even during pendency of the appeal, said it could not be exercised on irrelevant grounds. “Such power is also subject to judicial review on well known grounds – illegality, irrationality and impropriety.”

The villagers and the action committee which has been doggedly fighting the case is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court in the matter.

12 March 2008
 

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