Judge Shalini Singh Nagpal

Shalini Singh Nagpal was an Additional Sessions Judge at Chandigarh. In March 2012 she was the judge named in the press as having fixed 31 March 2012 as the date for hanging Balwant Singh Rajoana, whom a special CBI court had sentenced to death in 2007 over the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh. Rediff, in a report of 26 March 2012 reproduced by Hands Off Cain, says that the Additional Sessions Judge of Chandigarh, Shalini Singh Nagpal, had fixed 31 March as the date of the hanging.

The order: The Tribune reported on 29 March 2012 that a Chandigarh court had issued death warrants to the Patiala jail authorities earlier that month, and a piece by NDTV, reproduced by SikhNet, said that under a court order Rajoana was to be hanged on 31 March at Central Jail, Patiala. The sources opened give neither the date of her order nor her reasons. Rediff reported that Rajoana, who was lodged in the Patiala jail, had himself filed no mercy or review petition, and that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had petitioned President Pratibha Patil for clemency. It added that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said he would call on the President and the Prime Minister to seek commutation to life imprisonment.

Key moments

• 31 July 2007: the trial court sentences Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara to death (The Tribune's timeline).
• March 2012: a Chandigarh court issues death warrants for 31 March.
• 26 March 2012: Rediff names her as the judge who fixed the date.
• 28 March 2012: the Union Home Ministry stays the execution on the SGPC's plea.

What she is remembered for: for the order that brought Rajoana three days from the gallows. Beyond that order, the sources opened say nothing about her career.