Failure to punish for mass crimes cause wounds that fester: HC

The failure to punish for "mass crimes" like the 1984 anti-Sikh riots creates wounds which "fester" and "incurably infect the society", Delhi High Court today said while commenting on the lack of finality in these cases which relate to incidents that happened 32 years ago.

"Failure to punish for a mass crime as riots in which several perished, creates the most difficult chasm in the world to fill. Such failure not only creates wounds which fester but those which actually and incurably infect society.

"That riots happened in 1984 in New Delhi, the capital of India, in which hundreds perished, is not disputed. That despite passage of 32 years thereafter, cases in the complaints emanating from those riots have not attained finality in adjudication..," a bench of justices Gita Mittal and P S Teji said.
 

The court made the observation while dismissing the applications of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and two others who had sought recusal of one of the judges of this bench which is hearing an appeal against a trial court order in a anti-Sikh riots case.

The court said that delay in the cases attaining finality "has generated a sense of injustice in the victims as well as those who feel that they have been unjustly accused of commission of the crimes".

"Most importantly, it has lent arrogance to the actual perpetrators and created scepticism with judicial process in the society at large," it added.

The bench also said that delay in disposal of the cases "generates a view that serious crime such as mass violence goes undetected and unpunished".

"We feel that this may have emboldened several and encouraged other such incidents which have occurred in the country thereafter leaving black marks on our history," the court said.

The bench said it spent "valuable judicial time" to hear "protracted arguments" on these applications of Kumar, Mahender Yadav and Krishan Khokhar "to bring a closure to the pending appeals".

"It has further required both of us to devote time and effort to penning separate judgments on the prayer as mandated by judicial pronouncements," the bench said.