Tytler in the dock

PRESIDENT Droupadi Murmu has rightly flagged longstanding pendency of cases as a major challenge for the judiciary. Her clarion call for a change in the ‘culture of adjournments’ is also significant, as is her observation that people with resources continue to roam fearlessly even after committing crimes. These ills afflicting the justice delivery system are starkly visible in many cases pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The carnage is going to complete 40 years in a couple of months, but there is still no closure for countless families. Some victims have died in despair without seeing the offenders getting retribution.

Offering a ray of hope, a Delhi court has ordered the framing of charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in connection with the Gurdwara Pul Bangash killings. The court has said that there are sufficient grounds to presume that he abetted the murder of three Sikhs by instigating rioters to attack the place of worship. However, this is only half the battle won. It had taken litigants no less than 34 years to secure the conviction of another Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, in another riots case. Sentencing him to imprisonment ‘for the remainder of his natural life’, the Delhi High Court had observed that the violence was a ‘crime against humanity’, plotted by politicians in league with the police. However, such cases being taken to their logical conclusion has been a rarity.

No less appalling is the fact that the Congress has been reluctant to take stern action against riot-tainted leaders. The party persisted with Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister despite the reopening of a case against him. And Sajjan saved the Congress the trouble of expelling him by resigning from the party’s primary membership. Amid the political rot, the onus is yet again on the judiciary to provide justice, albeit long delayed, and give people the hope that all is not lost.