Delhi HC orders reconstruction of 1984 anti-Sikh riots case records to ensure fair trial

The High Court said the victims’ and society’s right to a fair investigation and trial cannot be compromised by missing files or flawed earlier proceedings.

The Delhi High Court has ordered the reconstruction of four-decade-old trial records in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, saying the victims’ and society’s right to a fair investigation and trial cannot be compromised by missing files or flawed earlier proceedings. The directive, issued to the trial court, concerns the acquittal of five men including former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar in the killing of four Sikhs in Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar.

The court said the available material revealed “several lacunae” in both the investigation and trial.

The murders took place on November 1, 1984, a day after then PM Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Three women had alleged that their husbands and son were burnt alive. In 1986, the trial court acquitted Khokhar and four others, citing lack of evidence.

Now, nearly 40 years later, a bench of justices Subramanian Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar WHEN has acted on petitions challenging the correctness of that verdict. The bench had earlier observed that the 1986 judgment appeared “unsustainable” and noted it was being relied on in appeals by Khokhar, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal, Mahender Yadav, and Krishan Khokhar against their 2013 conviction for murdering five Sikhs in the same locality. Neither the state nor the victims had appealed the 1986 acquittal at the time.

The court said the available material -- composite challans and the final judgments -- revealed “several lacunae” in both the investigation and trial. Key eyewitnesses were never examined because summons were sent to addresses destroyed or abandoned during the riots. “A composite challan has been filed for several cases, prima facie reflecting a perfunctory investigation,” the court said in its 66-page order, adding that the matter “cannot be left to rest at this juncture.”

Citing Supreme Court precedent in Abhai Raj Singh, the bench ruled that the trial court must reconstruct the records of Sessions Cases 31 and 32 of 1986, and only then can the High Court assess whether the original acquittals can stand. The matter will be heard next on September 1.

“The valuable rights of victims and the society at large to a free and fair investigation as also a real trial cannot be allowed to be compromised as a result of fait accompli,” the court observed.

Senior advocate HS Phoolka, appearing for the complainants, argued that the 1986 investigation and trial were “thoroughly inadequate and sketchy” and urged that the matters be remanded for retrial.

Amicus curiae Siddharth Aggarwal asserted that the court, before giving any findings into the correctness of the judgements passed by the additional sessions judges, was under a mandate to call for the records, examine the same and only then proceed ahead in the matter. He submitted that the trial court records had been weeded out and it was inappropriate for the court to proceed further with the matter without getting the records.

Khokhar’s counsel had asserted that ordering a re-trial or further investigation, when the records have been weeded out, would violate his client’s right to free trial.

In a separate 26-page judgment, the same bench directed the authorities to widely publicise the various government compensation schemes available for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. It further instructed them to verify victims’ claims within 16 weeks of receiving them and to disburse the compensation within two months thereafter.