The Delhi High Court has rejected an appeal by the Delhi Police seeking to revisit a 30-year-old verdict that acquitted 16 individuals in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The case involved the murder of three people by a mob on November 1, 1984, in Delhi’s Nand Nagri area.
Justices Prathiba M Singh and Saurabh Banerjee ruled on Tuesday that the substantial delay in filing the appeal—which came in January 2025 against the original February 22, 1995, ruling—was inexcusable. The court’s decision was influenced by precedents set in July 2023, where a coordinate bench had also declined to entertain state appeals against acquittals in similar cases where delays ranged from 27 to 36 years.
“In the present case, the delay would be more than 29 years. While this court is conscious of the large-scale loss of human lives and property during the 1984 riots, after having reviewed the quantum of delay and the arguments 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,” the court stated in its eight-page order, which was delivered on February 25 but published later.
The refusal to reopen the case comes amidst increased scrutiny by the Supreme Court over the handling of appeals related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases by the Delhi High Court, some of which have been pending for over seven years. On February 17, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice AS Oka had directed the Delhi Police to accelerate the process of filing appeals against six high court orders of acquittal.
