The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Amicus Curiae to identify the number of tribunals which would be required to quantify the amount of damage and process claims that had taken place after violence broke out in Haryana, particularly in Panchkula, following the 2017 conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet in a rape case. The full bench of Justices Augustine George Masih, Ritu Bahri and TRam Rahim ejinder Singh Dhindsa, ordered, “The broad modalities and the procedure, which are required to be followed by those tribunals to quantify the damages, which have been claimed or the claims which may be submitted on appointment of such tribunals.” The HC order further added, “It would be open to the counsel for the parties also to put forth their suggestions, if any, in this regard. The said suggestions may be placed on record within a period of 10 days from today with an advance copy thereof to be shared by the counsel amongst them.” The matter was then adjourned for February 17 for further hearing. The HC Bench had been hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) filed by Ravinder Singh Dhull and others, in the year 2017. A massive violence had broken out in Haryana, particularly Panchkula, after the Dera head was convicted in a rape case on August 25, 2017. In the run up to the verdict by a special CBI court at Panchkula, hundreds of Dera followers gathered outside the court complex and as soon as the verdict was pronounced, they indulged in violence causing destruction to property more than a hundred crores, as per official estimates. At least, 36 people were killed in Haryana later as security forces cracked down to rein in the unruly mobs.
