HC refuses to condone 28-year delay in challenging acquittal
New Delhi, July 12
The Delhi High Court has refused to condone a 28-year delay on part of the state in challenging the acquittal of several accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, saying there was no “justifiable” explanation for it.
The observation
No reason whatsoever has been given for explaining the delay of about 28 years. Pertinently, the report was given by the SIT on April 15, 2019, but even thereafter there is a delay of about four years for which no cogent explanation has been given. — Delhi HC Bench
Around 3,000 persons, mostly Sikhs, had died in the riots in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The state said a the two-member special investigation team (SIT) constituted following a Supreme Court order to look into the riots cases closed for lack of evidence or due to shoddy investigation, recommended in 2019 that an appeal might be filed against the 1995 acquittal order.
The appeal could not be finalised promptly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in further delay, and now the Leave to Appeal has been filed along with the application for condoning the delay of 27 years and 335 days, the state submitted.
However, the HC dismissed the application for being devoid of any merit. The grounds cited by the state for the “inordinate delay were not justifiable”, it said.
“No reason whatsoever has been given for explaining the delay of about 28 years. Pertinently, the report was given by the SIT on April 15, 2019, but even thereafter there is a delay of about four years for which no cogent explanation has been given,” a Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said.
“The reason now given is the findings by the SIT, but the SIT has also observed that the reason for disbelieving the witnesses on account of the delay of FIR was not correct. It is evident that the grounds of appeal which are now agitated are purely on the merits of the case which existed even at the time of trial and consequent acquittal,” the HC noted.
An FIR was registered in 1991 for rioting, attempt to murder, mischief with an intent to destroy house at the Saraswati Vihar police station in the national capital with regard to the incidents of rioting, looting and killing of Sikhs in Delhi which took place between October 31, 1984, and November 3, 1984. Charges were framed and the accused acquitted after trial by a sessions court on March 28, 1995.
The HC noted that it’s not in dispute that the accused were acquitted as witnesses produced by the prosecution were not found believable and, if the prosecution or the complainant were aggrieved by the judgment of acquittal, there was nothing that prevented them from filing the appeal.
(With PTI inputs)
