1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Delhi HC refuses to entertain state’s appeal against acquittals after 29-year delay

The HC earlier dismissed four such appeals by the state against acquittals, where the delay in filing such appeals ranged from 27 to 36 years since the accused in the three cases were acquitted by a trial court.

In the latest case, the state was appealing against a 1995 judgment by a Karkardooma sessions court that had acquitted Rattan Lal and 15 others for rioting and murder. A complaint was filed in the case at the Seema Puri police station in November 1984. All the accused in the case were acquitted, with the trial court granting the accused the benefit of the doubt and also observing a delay in the recording of statements of prosecution witnesses.

The bench, in its latest order, recorded, “While this Court is conscious of the large-scale loss of human lives and property during the 1984 riots, after having seen the quantum of delay and the discussion in the impugned judgment, following similar orders already passed, the delay is not liable to be condoned and leave is not liable to be granted.”

Explaining the delay, the state had said that the “filing of this petition has been delayed primarily due to the Justice S N Dhingra’s Committee, which was constituted on December 14, 2018, and submitted the report on April 15, 2019.” The state had told the court that it was after Justice Dhingra’s report was submitted that “internal reviews were conducted, and the matter was processed for filing of this leave petition,” after a delay of 10,873 days.

The committee’s report had castigated the police and the administration over their response to the riots, saying their “whole role… seems to have been to hush up the criminal cases concerning the riots”.

Notably, in February, after the Supreme Court advised the Delhi Police that filing appeals against acquittals of accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots must be “done seriously and not just for the sake of it,” the Delhi Police had told the top court that it would file six appeals against orders of acquittal.

The submission in the apex court had come in a PIL by former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee member S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, on whose plea the top court in 2018 formed an SIT led by former Delhi HC judge, Justice S N Dhingra, to probe 199 cases where investigations had been closed.