File progress report of pending cases of 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots: SC directs Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Registry of the Delhi High Court to file a progress report on four suo moto revision petitions pending before the High Court in the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots’ murder cases.

A Bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan also directed the Central and Delhi governments to file Special Leave Pleas against various acquittals in cases, which had earlier been dismissed by the Delhi High Court. The Court listed the matter to be heard next on March 25 this year.

The Court was hearing a 2016 plea filed by one S Gurlad Singh Kahlon seeking a probe into 51 murder cases that took place during the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots in Delhi.

The Kahlon’s plea had prompted the top court to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Justice SN Dhingra for the re-examination of 186 reopened cases in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that took the lives of many.

In the last hearing, on February 17, the top court directed that various SLPs slated to be filed be placed before the Chief Justice of India for a direction to tag those SLPs along with the present plea filed by Kahlon.

“Considering the fact that this Bench is seized of Writ Petition (Crl.) No.9 of 2016, the SLPs shall be placed before Hon’ble We direct the State of Delhi to ensure that SLPs in aforesaid cases are filed within a maximum period of six weeks from today”, the top court had noted in its February 17 order.

Today, the Court noted that the Delhi High Court Registry has filed a report as per its February order. However, it also noted that the Registry has not filed a status report on the four suo moto revision petitions, which are yet to be disposed of by the High Court. Thus, it proceeded to direct the High Court Registry to file a progress report in this regard.

The petitioner, Kahlon was represented through Senior Advocate HS Phoolka, Advocates Amarjeet Singh Bedi, Gaganmeet Singh Sachdeva and Varun Chugh.