1984 anti-Sikh riots: SC defers hearing on reopening of cases
The Supreme Court on Monday deferred the hearing on reopening of cases relating to 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi as papers were not in order.
As ordered by the Supreme Court on December 20, the Delhi Police filed a fresh status report on the implementation of the report of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Justice SN Dhingra (retd) on the investigation into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases.
The Delhi Police status report talked about eight cases in which appeals were filed as recommended by the Dhingra Committee but the same were dismissed by the Delhi High Court. At least in two cases the appeals against the high court’s order were also rejected by the top court, it said.
However, petitioner Gurlad Singh Kahlon alleged that the SIT report has been dealt with “complete lack of seriousness and in a casual manner” and that the Delhi Police merely filed statutory appeals against acquittals and the same were dismissed on the grounds of delay.
On Monday, senior counsel HS Phoolka submitted a tabulated chart based on the SIT report on behalf of the petitioner to highlight the inaction on the part of the Delhi Police.
Dhingra said while the murder of six persons was never investigated and no action was taken in at least two cases, in one case no SLP was filed against dismissal of a case. He said the SHO who allegedly took away licensed guns of Sikhs and made a gesture to the mob to attack Sikhs was promoted to the rank of ACP.
Additional Solicitor General told the Bench that the Delhi Police have filed a fresh status report as directed by the court on December 20.
Bench led by AS Oka deferred the hearing as the papers were not in order and it needed to peruse the documents filed by the parties.
On the last date of hearing, Phoolka and advocate Amarjit Bedi had pointed out that there were some glaring instances in the SIT report and said 500 cases were clubbed in one FIR and the investigating officer could not probe them.
"There were many instances where 498 cases were clubbed in one FIR and the IO (Investigation Officer) had to investigate all of them. Initially, when the hearing began, the court felt that it should be confined to Delhi only. But we have done nothing about other states. We have given examples of Kanpur, Bokaro, etc, nothing has happened," Bedi had submitted.
Almost 3,000 people were killed, most of them in Delhi, in the anti-Sikh riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
Acting on a petition filed by Gurlad Singh Kahlon -- a former member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee – the top court had in January 2018 appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Justice SN Dhingra (retd) to re-investigating 186 cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that were reopened.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had on January 15, 2020 informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted the report of the SIT which implicated several Delhi police personnel and said it would take action accordingly.
