Delhi Lt Governor(LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena has given a go ahead to the prosecution to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court judgment acquitting 12 murder accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots related case in which 08 persons were killed and 01 injured in Nangloi area of West Delhi.
Saxena approved the proposal of the Home Department for filing of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Apex Court for assailing the August 9, 2023 judgment of the High Court by which the appeal against the trial court verdict acquitting all the accused was dismissed, officials said here on Saturday.
The High Court said there was no explanation for inordinate delay of 27 years in filing the appeal against the trial court verdict of April 29, 1995 and grounds taken by the State were not justifiable.
Saxena perused the file concerning the proposal to move the SLP which stated that the High Court has not taken into consideration the merits of the case and instead dismissed the appeal of State only on the ground of inordinate delay in filing the appeal.
It was pointed out that the Supreme Court vide order dated 11.1.2018 in Writ Petition (Crl) No. 9/2016 titled as “S Gurlad Singh KahlonVs Union of India &ors directed to constitute SIT for further investigation in respect of 186 cases related to 1984 Anti Sikh riots and the instant case was a part of these 186 cases.
In compliance of above said order, a Special Investigation Team, comprising Justice (Retd.) SN Dhingra and Abhishek, IPS Officer, was constituted to examine the matter related to 1984 Anti Sikh riots cases vide notification dated 09.2.2018.
The SIT submitted its report dated 15.4.2019 that present case was a fit case where prosecution should have gone in appeal immediately after the judgment. Further Committee recommended that an appeal with an application of condonation of delay may be filed.
Consequent upon the approval of the LG on 30.06.2021 for filing of appeal in this case, Directorate of Prosecution sent the file to the office of Standing Counsel on 18.07.2021. However, Criminal Leave Petition was filed in the year 2023.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) vide his acquittal report dated 24.08.2023 has opined that the present case is a fit case to file an appeal or SLP before the Supreme Court as the High Court ignored the fact that the challenge against the trial court verdict was filed on the recommendations of the Commission constituted by the Apex Court by its judgment dated 09.06.2014 in a Criminal Appeal.
The APP stated that in this case, there is a crime against the humanity and the observations of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in a similar matter relating to mass killing of Bangladeshi citizens in 1971 by sympathizers of Pakistani, are relevant.
Even the Standing Counsel (Crl.), Delhi High Court vide his letter dated 14.09.2023 has opined that the present case is fit to file SLP (Criminal) before the Supreme Court as there is delay of only 274 days and not of 27 years as observed by High Court. The delay ought to be calculated from the date of Report submitted by the SIT rather than being calculated from the trial court judgment dated 29.04.1995.