The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the Odisha government a final opportunity to decide on the premature release of Bajrang Dal member Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Live Law reported.

It verbally stated that if the Odisha Sentence Review Board did not decide on the matter by the next hearing, the court would take the decision.

During the previous hearing on July 14, the court had asked the Odisha government to decide on Singh’s remission plea by August 19. However, a bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi was told on Wednesday that no decision has been taken yet, Live Law reported.

Staines and his minor sons were burnt to death by a mob led by Singh in Odisha in January 1999 when they were sleeping in a jeep. The attackers had accused the missionary of illegal religious conversion.

Singh was among the 14 persons convicted in 2003 by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court. He was sentenced to death by the CBI court, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2005 by the Orissa High Court.

The Supreme Court had upheld Singh’s conviction in 2011.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the lawyer for the Odisha government said that as per the police chief, information about Singh’s antecedents has been sought from Uttar Pradesh, where he was a resident.

Justice Misra verbally remarked that the court would not allow indecisiveness, and said that the court would decide on the remission plea if the state did not do so by September 2. “We are not concerned how you are communicating; just take a decision,” the judge was quoted as saying by Live Law.

In his remission plea, the Bajrang Dal member argued that he should be considered for early release as he is above the age of 60 and has been in jail for more than 24 years. Singh told the court that he regretted his actions, which the petition described as having been in the context of “protecting the nation”.

He also told the court that he had never been granted parole.

In April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, another person convicted in the case, was released from a jail in Odisha on the grounds of “good behaviour”.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

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