By Sohini Ghosh
The Delhi High Court’s dismissal of three appeals related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, filed 27 to 36 years after the accused were acquitted by a trial court, sets a precedent for at least 10 other cases.
In 2018, the Supreme Court had set up a two-member committee headed by former Delhi High Court judge S N Dhingra, which had recommended the filing of appeals in several cases where it felt that the judges handed acquittals “in a routine manner”.
Noting that the appeals have been filed after a delay ranging from more than 27 years to 29 years to 36 years, a bench of Justices Prathiba Singh and Amit Sharma said in an order on October 21 said: “In the present case, the delay is 13,420 days i.e., more than 36 years. While this court is conscious of the large-scale loss of human lives and property during the 1984 riots, considering the long delay, the delay is not liable to be condoned, and leave is not liable to be granted.”
The case stems from an acquittal on April 26, 1995, where Om Parkash, Pushpa, Madhu, and Nand Kishore alias Pappu were acquitted of offences including rioting, murder and unlawful assembly, among others. The FIR in the case was registered at the Seemapuri police station in 1984.
In the verdict of July 29, 1995, based on an FIR registered at the Delhi Cantonment police station, Niranjan Kumar, Ram Kumar, and Sharwan Kumar were acquitted of similar charges.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.