HC asks AAP govt about status of job applications of kin of 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims

The Delhi High Court Monday sought the AAP government's response to a PIL alleging non-compliance of a 2006 circular of the Centre directing that the children or other family members of those killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots be provided jobs on compassionate grounds.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital to submit a report indicating the status of the applications for employment it had received since the circular was issued.

The order came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), claiming that despite the passage of 12 years since the circular, not a single applicant was provided employment by the Delhi government.

The bench listed the matter for further hearing on February 4.

The DSGMC, represented by senior advocate A P S Ahluwalia and advocate Harpreet Singh Hora, has contended in its plea that non-implementation of the scheme has led to "undue injustice and discrimination" being caused to the families of the anti-Sikh riot victims.

The Centre's standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Ministry of Home Affairs, said according to the circular, the onus was on the Delhi government to provide employment to the family members of the riot victims.

The petition claims that as per official records, 2,733 people had died in the riots and after the 2006 circular, 1,115 job applications were received by the Delhi government, which till date has allegedly not employed even one family member of a riot victim.

The DSGMC, in its plea, has sought the status of the job applications of the riot victims' family members, along with the reasons for the rejection or pendency of the same.

It has also urged the court to direct that the claims of the riot victims' family members be decided within a specified time-frame.

There was widespread rioting and killing of Sikhs in the national capital after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.