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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today refused to hear a plea filed by one Ashutosh Taploo, a Kashmiri Pandit, seeking probe into his father, Tikka Lal Taploo's murder allegedly by the JKLF terrorists during the exodus of 1990.

"We are not inclined to hear this plea", remarked a bench of Justices BR Gavai and CT Ravikumar while granting the petitioner liberty to take appropriate recourse of law.

In the petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, among other reliefs, Taploo sought protection, rehabilitation of his family, and investigation/ prosecution of persons who were involved in the killing of his father, who was living in Kashmir valley in their ancestral home till 1989 when due to militancy in the region, a mass genocide took place, resulting into killings of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits.

"Though the FIR has been registered in 1989 regarding the killing of the father of the petitioner but the same is lying in the Police Station without any investigation. What could be more Shocking, travesty of justice and violation of Fundamental right of the petitioner than this", the plea added.

The petitioner further referred to the Law Commission Report published under Chairperson Justice (Retd.) M. K. Hanjura wherein it was clearly stated that the Jammu & Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Prevention, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997 needs to be suitably amended and a complete ban may be imposed on the alienation of property belonging to such class of people (Kashmiri Pandit) by any mode of transfer until further orders.

Against this backdrop, the plea submitted that no firm action has been taken by the government to ensure protection and restoration of property and the progress on the issue is very slow and requires immediate intervention of the Top Court.

The court was further told that the situation in Kashmir is such that even today, although there are changes in circumstances in the territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the petitioner due to fear (which they experienced during the genocide from 1989-1990) cannot move to their ancestral homes more so because they are even not aware as to what has happened to their ancestral home and property.

Recently, the Supreme Court had asked Delhi-based non-governmental organization (NGO) 'We the Citizens', to approach the Union of India, in a plea seeking directions to the Union of India to rehabilitate/ resettle the Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs who migrated from Kashmir after the exodus in the year 1990 and to identify the perpetrators who were involved, and who aided and abated the genocide of Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu & Kashmir.

A demand for constitution of a Special Investigation Team was also placed before the bench to identify the perpetrators who were involved, and who aided and abated the genocide of Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu & Kashmir during the period from 1989 to 2003.

We the Citizens had further demanded that on the basis of the report of the SIT so constituted, the accused be prosecuted.

Notably, a Kashmiri Pandits organization, Roots in Kashmir had filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court recently against an order passed by the top court in April 2017, dismissing its plea which sought an investigation into the mass murder of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley during 1989-1990, seeking reopening, investigation, and speedy disposal of pending charge-sheets in the Kashmir 1989-1990 incident.

The plea also sought reopening of the case while stating that communal harmony is the hallmark of a democracy. "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," it stated.

Case Title: ASHUTOSH TAPLOO vs. UNION OF INDIA And ANR.