The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four more weeks to the trial court for reconstructing four-decade-old records in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, emphasising the importance of ensuring justice and fairness in revisiting the matter.
A division bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar issued the direction after noting that the trial court had not yet furnished its detailed report on the status of reconstruction, as required by an earlier order dated August 11. The high court requested the trial court to file the report within four weeks and listed the matter for hearing on October 10. Copies of the order were also directed to be sent to the district judge (headquarters), Tis Hazari Court.
The case relates to the killing of four Sikh men in Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Three women had alleged that their husbands and a son were burnt alive during the violence.
In 1986, the trial court acquitted former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar and four others for want of evidence. However, the Delhi High Court later took suo motu cognisance of the matter, observing that the earlier investigation and proceedings appeared to have been conducted in a “hasty manner.”
The court stressed that the reconstruction of trial records is essential to assess the correctness of the 1986 acquittal order. It underlined the right of the victims and society to a fair investigation, holding that only after reconstruction can the high court determine whether the acquittals were justified.
The direction applies to two connected cases from 1986, and the trial court has been tasked with completing the reconstruction process within the stipulated timeframe.
