BREAKING| Dara Singh Remission Plea: Supreme Court Allows Amendment After Odisha Rejects Request

The Bench had refused to grant another adjournment after counsel appearing for the State sought time, stating that instructions were awaited. “Last time also you sought time. What is your decision here?” Justice Misra had asked.

The Bench had referred to its August 19, 2026 order, noting that the matter had been adjourned specifically to enable the competent authorities to take a decision on the remission plea.

Questioning why the matter was being kept pending again, Justice Misra had said, “Why are you necessarily adjourning the matter? Take a decision. You want to reject it, reject it. We will deal with it.”

The Court had also questioned the repeated reference to “instructions” and sought to know who was competent to take the decision on the remission plea. “What do you mean by instructions? You have to place the record. Nothing else,” Justice Misra had remarked. The Bench had noted that the remission plea had already been pending for more than two years, observing, “You can’t keep it lingering like this.”

Last month, the Court had expressed hope that the Odisha government's Sentence Review Committee would take a decision on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh.

About the plea

Singh moved the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking premature release under the Odisha Premature Release Policy, 2022, contending that he has undergone more than 26 years of imprisonment, maintained good conduct in jail, and satisfied the eligibility criteria for remission. He also relied on the principle of reformative justice and cited the Supreme Court's decision granting remission to A.G. Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In his plea, Singh stated that he deeply regretted the offences committed over two decades ago and sought an opportunity to "give back to society" through service-oriented work. He further claimed that he had no personal animosity towards the victims and described his actions as the result of youthful rage.

The Odisha government, however, informed the Court that the matter remained under consideration by the competent committee. Notably, Singh's case has reportedly been examined by five Sentence Review Committees in the past, all of which rejected his request for remission, with the last rejection occurring in February 2024.

What is Dara Singh is convicted for

Dara Singh was convicted for leading the mob that burned alive Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), inside their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Odisha's Keonjhar district on January 21, 1999. While the trial court awarded him the death penalty, the Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, holding that the case did not fall within the "rarest of rare" category. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in 2011.