File fresh status report on anti-Sikh riot''s SIT probe: SC to Centre

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent 

New Delhi, January 16

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday asked the Centre to file a fresh status report on the SIT probe into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, especially for reopening cases closed in haste.

A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi posted the next hearing for February 20 as Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand sought four weeks time for the purpose.

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The Bench was hearing a PIL by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) member S Gurlad Sing Khalon

In the earlier status report filed on the apex court’s directive, the Centre had said the SIT examined 216 cases and identified 22 for reopening. The committee was facing manpower shortage.

In his PIL, Kahlon pleaded for bringing the SIT probe under SC monitoring so that there was no further delay in pursuing and disposal of riots related cases.

Arguing for the petitioner today, senior counsel Arvind Data said there was need for urgency as the SIT was set up two years ago and it's extended tenure would expire in less than a month.

Anand, however, said the work was on.

The Centre had set up the SIT on February 12, 2015 for completing the task within six months, but the panel had already been granted extension for one year. Headed by Pramod Asthana, a 1986 batch IPS officer, the SIT includes former Session Judge Rakesh Kapoor and Delhi’s Additional Commissioner of Police Kumar Gyanesh. 

Kahlon pleaded that SC monitor the probe as it did in the case  2002 Gujarat riots to ensure expeditious trial of the accused.

The processes designed by the Centre time and again to provide justice for the victims of the 1984 riots were rather being used to suppress it, he pleaded. At least, ten commissions and committees had so far gone into the riots, “but the reality is that the victims of the massacre are nowhere near justice even after the passage of three decades,” he pleaded.