Supreme Court to hear curative plea for probe into 'genocide' of Kashmiri Pandits tomorrow

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 20

The Supreme Court will take up on November 22 a curative petition seeking a probe by the CBI/NIA or any other court-appointed agency into the alleged mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) in J&K during 1989-90.

The petition, filed by “Roots in Kashmir” in March this year, is listed before a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

The main petition and the review petition seeking re-opening of the cases were dismissed in 2017 for a

27-year delay.

Citing the re-opening of an anti-Sikh riots case after 35 years, the petitioner contended that no limitation period was applicable in crimes against humanity and in cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The petition questioned the court’s 2017 order dismissing a petition for a probe into alleged ethnic cleansing of KPs.

The curative petition alleged that the J&K Police miserably failed to make any progress in hundreds of FIRs pending with them.

Curative petitions — a judicially devised mechanism — are considered to be the last hope for a litigant to get justice. “The instances referred to in the petition pertain to 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed since then. No fruitful purpose will emerge as the evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture,” the top court had said in its April 27, 2017, order.

The curative petition cited a 2018 Delhi order in a case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots against former Delhi Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in which it had said: “It’s important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, truth will prevail and justice will be done...” Kumar, who was convicted in the case, is currently serving a life term in Tihar Jail.

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