From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked an NGO, We the Citizens, to petition the Centre and withdraw its plea in the court for rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs who had to migrate from the valley due to the terrorism in 1990s.
A Bench of Justices Bhushan R Gavai and C T Ravikumar heard the plea at a time when a curative petition of Roots in Kashmir is pending before the court to seek an investigation either by the CBI or the NIA into the mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90.
The instant petition sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the targeted killings to identify those who “aided and abetted the genocide” of the Hindu and Sikh communities in the Kashmir valley from 1989 to 2003.
NGO Roots in Kashmir had moved the Supreme Court in March this year and challenged a 2017 order of the top court dismissing an earlier plea. The top court had then said: “The instances referred in the petition pertain to the year 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as the evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture.”
While filing the curative petition, the organisation had cited a 2018 order of the Delhi High Court on 1984 anti-Sikh riots accused Sajjan Kumar. The Delhi HC had allowed the appeal and stated: “It is important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, truth will prevail and justice will be done…”
