The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a panel of two of its retired judges to re-examine all the 241 cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh communal carnage in Delhi which had been closed by the central government appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). This is to ensure that no perpetrator of the heinous crimes goes unpunished.
The name of the two judges will be notified after consultations and the panel will be asked to submit its report to the apex court in three months.
In February 2015, the Centre appointed a three-member SIT, headed by IPS officer Pramod Asthana to reopen all cases which were earlier closed by the Delhi Police ostensibly for lack of sufficient evidence. The SIT, after examining the available materials recommended closure of 241 odd cases and it is still examining nine cases.
But a bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar has decided to get the cases re-examined by its retired judges. The panel would see whether the SIT was justified in closing the 241 cases on the ground of lack of prosecutable evidence.
The court was hearing a petition filed by S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee seeking an independent probe in all anti-Sikh riot cases in Delhi.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior lawyer Pinki Anand who appeared for the Centre did not oppose setting up of the panel and left it for the court to take a call on the issue.
In the mass killing that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh guards, over 3,300 Sikhs were massacred, of which 2,773 were in Delhi alone.