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A Public Interest Litigation plea has been filed before the Supreme Court 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.

The plea filed through a Delhi-based non-governmental organization (NGO) 'We the Citizens' further seeks a direction to the government to conduct a Census of Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu & Kashmir who have been victims/survivors of the genocide.

The demand of a Special Investigation Team has also been placed 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 has further demanded that on the basis of the report of the SIT so constituted, the accused be prosecuted.

The plea, drawn by Advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, alleges that due to the inaction and silence of the Police Administration, government machinery during the relevant period, the Hindus and Sikhs were brutally killed in large numbers, they were forced to migrate from Kashmir and their properties were dealt with in a manner the perpetrators wanted to deal with.

Therefore, it has been also prayed that all sale of properties post exodus in the year January 1990 whether religious, residential, agricultural, commercial, institutional, educational or any other immovable property may be declared as null and void.

The petitioners have alleged that they filed the plea after studying books like “My frozen turbulence in Kashmir” authored by Jagmohan, ex-Governor of Jammu & Kashmir during the relevant period, and “Our moon has blood clots” by Rahul Pandita which provide a firsthand account of incidents of murder, arson and migration committed against Hindus & Sikhs from Kashmir.

Recently, Kashmiri Pandits organization, Roots in Kashmir has filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court 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 before the apex Court has sought the 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."

Case Title: We the Citizens vs. Union of India and Anr