The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down on the Odisha authorities for repeatedly delaying a decision on the premature release/remission plea of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence in the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.
Refusing another adjournment, the Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi said, “You cannot keep it lingering like this,” and directed the State to take a decision before the next hearing.
The Supreme Court had repeatedly given the State time to take a decision. On August 19, 2026, the Court recorded that the matter had been adjourned time and again to enable the respondents to decide the remission plea, while Dara Singh had by then been incarcerated for more than 26 years. The State informed the Court that a report from the District Jail, Kendujhar, was still awaited. The Court consequently directed the Sentence Review Board to take a decision and apprise it of the decision by September 2.
During Today’s hearing, however, the Court was again faced with a request for adjournment. The Court was initially informed that AoR was suffering from viral illness. The Bench questioned why the matter should be adjourned when the State had already been specifically directed to take a decision.
The Court recalled its earlier order and pointed out that the State had been given sufficient opportunity to decide the matter. When counsel stated that he had “no instructions,” the Bench questioned who was responsible for taking the decision and made it clear that the authorities could either accept or reject the plea, but could not indefinitely defer it.
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“You take a decision, you want to reject it, reject it. We will deal it from another end. But you cannot keep it lingering like this…This is not the way. You can’t avoid taking a decision. You have to take a decision. Yes or no, whatever you want to takeFor two years, you are only just delaying the matter,” the Court remarked.
It further told the State that if the authorities decided to reject the remission plea, the petitioner could challenge that decision, while if the plea was accepted, the proceedings before the Supreme Court could become infructuous. However, the State could not simply avoid taking a decision.
The Court ultimately refused the request for adjournment and directed that the matter be listed on September 17, 2026. It directed the respondent authorities to inform the Court on that date about the decision taken pursuant to its earlier order dated August 19.
The Bench also issued a warning that if the authorities failed to take a decision, the concerned Secretary could be summoned. “Pass an order, whatever you have to do. Otherwise, we will summon your secretary, whosoever is in charge of this,” the Court said.
Background of the Case
Dara Singh’s conviction arises from the killing of Australian Christian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, Philip, aged 10, and Timothy, aged 6, in January 1999. Staines was working among tribal communities in Odisha and had travelled to Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district for a Jungle Camp. On the night of January 22-23, 1999, he and his two sons were sleeping in their vehicle when a mob set it on fire.
Dara Singh was sentenced to death by the trial court in 2003. The Orissa High Court, while upholding his conviction, commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the life sentence in 2011.
In seeking premature release, Singh has relied on the reformative theory of punishment, submitting that the crime was committed in a ‘fit of youthful rage’ and that he is now repentant. He has also relied upon the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision concerning premature release of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.