Supreme Court dismisses curative petition for probe into 'genocide' of Kashmiri pandits

The Supreme Court has dismissed a curative petition, filed by 'Roots in Kashmir' for a probe either by the CBI or the National Investigation Agency into the alleged mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer closed the option of last legal recourse available in the form of curative petition for the petitioner.

After going through the papers, the bench said, "We have gone through the Curative Petition and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra (2002)."

The court passed its order in the matter on November 22.

It had earlier in 2017 dismissed a review petition against the order rejecting the plea for probe.

In its plea, NGO alleged that the police and other state machinery, at the relevant time, were so influenced by the leadership of the ruling political parties that no legal action was taken against the perpetrators and masterminds of ''the religious killings and exodus''.

"The dastardly genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs which happened in 1989-90 in the Kashmir valley is a glaring example of complete failure of Constitutional Machinery in preventing the genocide and protecting the life, property of the Kashmiri Hindu and Sikh in the Kashmir valley. Therefore, the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 14, 19 & 21 of the Constitution of India were openly violated," the petition stated.

The plea challenged an order of the top court passed in 2017 dismissing the plea saying, "the instances referred in the petition pertain to the year 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as the evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture".

The curative petition has cited a 2018 Delhi High Court order on Sajjan Kumar in anti-Sikh riots case, which said, "It is important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, truth will prevail and justice will be done."