Murder of Kashmiri Pandits: Curative petition in SC to reconsider order rejecting plea for probe

Supreme Court

A curative petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking reconsideration of its 2017 order dismissing a plea which had sought investigation into the alleged mass murder of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley in 1989-1990.

The curative petition, filed by an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, 'Roots in Kashmir', said the apex court was "not justified" in dismissing the writ petition at the admission stage in 2017 merely on presumption that the instances referred to in it pertained to 1989-1990 and no fruitful purpose would emerge as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture.

"This really amounts to failure of justice or gross miscarriage justice caused to the petitioner in view of the fact that the petitioner has stated in the writ petition as well as in review petition that this court has not only entertained the writ petition and also passed necessary direction for trial etc. in cases where the incident pertains to even more than 30-32 years," the petition said.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse in the apex court and is generally heard in-chamber unless a prima facie case is made out for reconsideration of the verdict.

The organization had initially filed a writ petition in the top court seeking investigation and prosecution of several persons in connection with murders of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90, 1997 and 1998.

Besides seeking other directions, it had also sought transfer of investigation of all the FIRs and cases of murder and other allied crimes against Kashmiri Pandits in the years 1989-90, 1997 and 1998 to some other independent investigating agency like the CBI or the NIA or any other agency appointed by the top court.

The organisation had said in its plea that the Jammu and Kashmir Police had failed to make any progress in hundreds of FIRs lying pending with them.

The apex court had dismissed the plea in April 2017. Later, it had also dismissed the review petition filed in the matter.

In the curative petition, the organisation has sought reconsideration of the orders passed by the apex court.

It has also urged the apex court to hear and decide the writ petition afresh on merit by giving opportunity to both the parties.

"..this court was not justified at all in dismissing the writ petition at the admission stage by merely on presumption that the instances refer to in the present petition pertain to the year 1989-1990, and more than 27 years have passed by since then and no fruitful purpose would immerge, as evidence unlikely to be available at this late juncture," it said.

The petition said that communal harmony is the "hallmark of a democracy" and no religion teaches hatred.

"If in the name of religion, people are killed, that is essentially a slur and blot on the society governed by rule of law. The Constitution of India, in its preamble refers to secularism. Religious fanatics really do not belong to any religion. They are no better than terrorists who kill innocent people for no rhyme or reason in a society," the petition said.

It said the apex court had appointed a special investigation team (SIT) in the post Godhra riots case on the petitions filed before it.

The plea said in the review petition, the organisation had mentioned that in similarly placed cases of 1984 anti-Sikhs Riots, the court had taken cognizance even after a lapse over 33 years.

"If the state's machinery fails to protect citizen's life, liberties and property and the investigation is conducted in a slipshod manner to help the accused persons, it is but appropriate that this court should step in to prevent undue miscarriage of justice which is perpetrated upon the victims and their family members," it said.

The plea claimed that the top court had "failed to appreciate" that more than 700 Kashmiri Pandits were murdered from 1989 to 1998 and FIRs were lodged in more than 200 cases, but not even a single FIR has reached to the stage of filing of charge sheet or conviction.

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