1984 anti-Sikh riots: SC asks Centre to file fresh status report on trials

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to file a fresh status report in two weeks on the implementation of the report of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Justice SN Dhingra (retd) on the investigation into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases.

A Bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to file an affidavit and permitted the petitioners in the case to file their detailed objections and posted the matter for January 27, 2025.

On behalf of the victims, senior counsel HS Phoolka and advocate Amarjit Bedi pointed out that there were some glaring instances in the SIT report and said 500 cases were clubbed in one FIR and the investigating officer could not probe them.

"There were many instances where 498 cases were clubbed in one FIR and the IO (Investigation Officer) had to investigate all of them. Initially, when the hearing began, the court felt that it should be confined to Delhi only. But we have done nothing about other states. We have given examples of Kanpur, Bokaro, etc, nothing has happened," Bedi submitted.

Almost 3,000 people were killed, most of them in Delhi, in the anti-Sikh riots that broke out following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Acting on a petition filed by S Gurlad Singh Kahlon -- a former member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee – the top court had in January 2018 appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Justice Dhingra (retd) to re-investigate 186 cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that were reopened.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had on January 15, 2020 informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted the report of the SIT which implicated several Delhi police personnel and said it would take action accordingly.