Supreme Court Asks Odisha Government to Decide on Remission Plea Within a Month

PTI, July 15, 2026, New Delhi: : The Supreme Court has given the Odisha government a month to decide on the remission plea of a "repenting" Ravindra Pal, alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in Keonjhar district in 1999.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi posted the matter for hearing on August 19 after the state government sought time.

"Let him also celebrate Independence Day. You must take a decision by August 15," the court told the counsel for the Odisha government on Tuesday.

The bench had earlier as well asked the state's sentence review committee to take a call on Singh's remission plea.

"A request has been made on behalf of the state that the matter may be adjourned for a short period as the committee which was to take a decision has called for the records and those records are yet to be made available to them," it said while posting the matter for further hearing.

"In the meantime, we expect that the committee shall take its decision," it added.

A mob led by Singh attacked Staines and his two sons — 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy — while they slept in their station wagon and set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.

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 his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.

During its hearing on Tuesday, the bench asked Odisha government counsel P. V. Yogeswaran about the status of proceedings on Singh's premature release.

The counsel replied that the committee required certain documents from the district court, which are being called for.

On March 19 last year, the apex court asked the Odisha government to decide on the remission plea.