Supreme Court Dismisses Curative Petition Seeking Probe Into Killings Of Kashmiri Pandits In '90s

The Supreme Court recently dismissed a Curative Petition filed by an organisation Roots in Kashmir seeking probe into the killings of Kashmiri Pandits during the height of militancy in the valley during the 1990s.

The bench of Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer observed that, "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."

The curative petition was filed against a 2017 verdict of the Supreme Court which had dismissed the organization's petition for probe citing long delay.

On July 24, 2017, a bench comprising the then Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud had dismissed the petition saying "No evidence will be available after 27 years. What happened is heart wrenching but we can't pass orders now".

Subsequently, the review petition against the verdict was dismissed on October 24, 2017.

In the curative petition, the petitioner had argued that to dismiss the plea for probe on the sole ground of long delay amounts to a "grave error apparent on the record".

"Because the orders passed by this Hon'ble Court are manifestly erroneous and bad in law on the sole ground that delay is not attributable to victim families, many of whom have consistently sought to use, all available forums to struggle for justice. Some victim families have not pursued cases due to the real fear and danger", the petition said.

It was submitted that more than 700 Kashmiri Pandits were murdered during 1989-98 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 conviction.

Case Title: Roots in Kashmir vs Union of India and Ors. - Curative Petition (Crl) No 11 of 2022

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