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Court noted that the report was given by the SIT in April 2019, but even thereafter there was a delay of about four years, for which “no cogent” explanation had been given by the State.
The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to condone delay of nearly 28 years by the State in filing appeal against the acquittal of several accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
The division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that there was no "justifiable" explanation for the delay.
“In the present case, the delay is 27 years and 335 days and there is no explanation for this inordinate delay. Moreover, the grounds taken by the State are not justifiable. Therefore, we find no merit in the present application, and the same is hereby dismissed”, the court said.
The accused persons were set free by a trial court in Delhi in 1995.
Counsel for the State submitted that a two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted following a Supreme Court order to look into the riots cases, which were closed for lack of evidence or due to shoddy investigation, recommended in 2019 that an appeal may be filed against the 1995 order of acquittal. It said that due to COVID-19, the appeal could not be finalized as the file had to be passed through various channels, which resulted in further delay.
The division bench noted that the report was given by the SIT in April 2019, but even thereafter there was a delay of about four years, for which “no cogent” explanation had been given by the State.
The court said that if the prosecution or the complainant were aggrieved by the judgment of acquittal, there was nothing which prevented them from filing the appeal. “The reason now been given for filing the appeal is the opinion given by SIT in its Report, that the Trial Court could not have taken a view of weakness of the case merely due to delay in recording of FIR or delay in recording the statements of the witnesses”, it added.
The court also said that the delay in recording of FIR was obvious as the State was not interested in recording the FIRs. “During the riots more than 3000 Sikhs were killed and only few cases were registered in respect of these gruesome murders, large scale burning and looting. The witnesses had deposed that their complaints were not being recorded by the police”, the court noted.
“It was not disputed on behalf of the State that no further investigations have been carried out by the Investigating Agencies and no fresh material in respect of the alleged offences has been placed on record. There is no explanation as to why the State or the complainant did not file the appeal on the grounds that were available even at the time of acquittal”, the court said.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the application seeking condonation of delay as well as the leave petition.
Case Title: State v. Hari Lal & Ors.
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