Can't keep it lingering: SC pulls up Odisha over delay in Dara Singh remission plea

The Supreme Court has asked the Odisha government to decide Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh's remission plea without further delay. The court said prolonged inaction is unacceptable and warned it could summon officials.A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed displeasure that the state had still not informed it whether any decision had been taken. The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Odisha government to take a clear decision on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons. The court said the matter could not be kept pending any longer.A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed displeasure that the state had still not informed it whether any decision had been taken. “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.Counsel for the state told the court that a letter seeking adjournment had been circulated because the advocate-on-record was unwell. Referring to its August 19 order, the bench said it had already directed the State Sentence Review Board to take a decision and inform the court. “Last time also, time was granted to decide on the application. You convey to us the decision,” the bench said. It added, “You can’t avoid taking a decision. For two years, you are delaying the matter. Yes or no, you take a decision.”When the state’s counsel asked for the matter to be listed on September 17, the bench said, “We are not going to adjourn it on the next date.” It further told the state, “You take a decision and inform us, or we will summon your officer.” The court then 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 case on August 19, the top court had also pulled up the Odisha government for not deciding Singh’s remission plea. It noted that the matter had been adjourned repeatedly to enable the authority to act on his plea. During a hearing in July, the court had given the state a month to decide on it. Singh, 63, has been in jail for more than 26 years.Singh moved the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking premature release, saying he had spent over 24 years in prison and had “repented” for what he described as an act committed in a fit of “youthful rage”. In his plea, he said he believed in karmic philosophy and should be given a chance to reform his character and address the effects of the bad karma he had accumulated through his actions. Seeking the court’s mercy, he said he would give back to society through “service-oriented actions”. He also asked for directions to the state government to consider his case under the 2022 guidelines for premature release in the three cases in which he was convicted. According to his plea, Singh, who is lodged in Keonjhar district jail, has completed more than the qualifying period of 14 years under the April 19, 2022 policy and has undergone more than 24 years of actual imprisonment without remission. He said the authorities were under a legal obligation to consider his case under the Odisha government’s “Guideline for Premature Release 2022”, and that their failure to do so had jeopardised his right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.The case relates to the attack on the intervening night of January 22 and 23, 1999, when a mob led by Singh attacked Staines and his sons, 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy, while they were sleeping in their station wagon in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district and set the vehicle on fire. 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 the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in 2011.Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Singh, is also serving a life sentence in the case, while 11 other accused were acquitted by the high court for lack of evidence. Staines and his wife Gladys worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients. Gladys Staines, who received the Padma Shri in 2005, had said she had forgiven the killers of her husband and sons and held no bitterness against them. The Supreme Court has now asked the Odisha government to state its decision on Singh’s remission plea at the next hearing on September 17.- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 8, 2026 18:22 IST