NEW DELHI—The Supervisory Committee, comprising of former Supreme Court Judges Justices J.M. Panchal and Justice K.S.P. Radhakrishnan, on December 6 submitted its final report on the 241 cases pertaining to the Sikh genocide. These cases were earlier closed by the Special Investigation Team for lack of evidence. As the report was submitted in a leather bag with a number-lock system, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the lock will be opened on December 11.
A petition was moved by a former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) member Gurlad Singh Kahlon seeking Supreme Court’s supervision over working of the SIT. A three member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra on August 16 then appointed a two member Supervisory committee to scrutinize 241 cases of 1984 Sikh genocide in which the SIT had filed closure report and had asked to submit report within three months. The names of Judges appointed in the Supervisory committee, which begun its working on Sikh genocide cases on September 5, were kept confidential at that time.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) was appointed by Narendra Modi led Union government of India in February 2015. Initially, the SIT was asked to submit its report within six months but later it tenure was dramatically increased in consecutive step and till now it hasn’t shown any result to bring the culprits of Sikh genocide to justice.