NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday, December 17, 2021, asked the Delhi High Court to decide within three months a petition for an FIR to be registered and investigation started against BJP leaders who had allegedly made hate speeches capable of inciting crowds ahead of the 2020 Delhi riots.
A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai was hearing a writ petition filed by three riots’ victims who had alleged that the Delhi High Court “delaying” the proceedings on their petition seeking FIR against BJP’s Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for three petitioners who are victims of the violence, told the bench that despite the SC order of March last year asking the high court to dispose of the petition as expeditiously as possible, no progress has been made.
“Petitioners are losing hope. What justice for Jamia students? What justice for Delhi riots victims? Students were brutally beaten, heads cracked,” Gonsalves said. ‘The high court is delaying proceedings despite earlier direction by the Supreme Court (in March last year) to decide matters in a time-bound manner,” he said.
The petitioners also sought the constitution of an independent SIT, with officers from outside Delhi, to investigate cases connected to the violence. The petitioners have sought inquiry by a retired judge into the communal attacks and to identify the police personnel allegedly involved in the rioting and thereafter, direct that those officers be dismissed from service in accordance with the law.
The SC bench, while stating that it was not inclined to entertain the writ petition, however, said, “We request the high court to decide the petition expeditiously, preferably within three months.”
CAA protests had led to communal riots
Violence broke out in the northeastern parts of Delhi in February 2020 after tension between supporters of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those protesting against it. Over 50 people died and around 200 were injured in the communal riots that followed.