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

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 19891990The 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 19891990 and no fruitful purpose would emerge as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late junctureThis 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 3032 years the petition saidA curative petition is the last legal recourse in the apex court and is generally heard inchamber unless a prima facie case is made out for reconsideration of the verdictThe 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 198990 1997 and 1998Besides 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 198990 1997 and 1998 to some other independent investigating agency like the CBI or the NIA or any other agency appointed by the top courtThe 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 themThe apex court had dismissed the plea in April 2017 Later it had also dismissed the review petition filed in the matterIn the curative petition the organisation has sought reconsideration of the orders passed by the apex courtIt has also urged the apex court to hear and decide the writ petition afresh on merit by giving opportunity to both the partiesthis 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 19891990 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 saidThe petition said that communal harmony is the hallmark of a democracy and no religion teaches hatredIf 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 saidIt said the apex court had appointed a special investigation team SIT in the post Godhra riots case on the petitions filed before itThe plea said in the review petition the organisation had mentioned that in similarly placed cases of 1984 antiSikhs Riots the court had taken cognizance even after a lapse over 33 yearsIf the states machinery fails to protect citizens 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 saidThe 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 convictionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever