Kalgidhar Sewak Jattha (KSJ), an NGO working for the welfare of Sikhs, filed the PIL claiming properties of some 60 Sikh families living here were destroyed by the rioters.
"These families had registered FIRs in Raipur and Saraspur police stations in this regard. However, when they sought compensation under the relief package announced by the Central Government at that time, they were refused monetary assistance by subsequent state and Central governments," the NGO's counsel Kishor Paul said.
"These families kept communicating with the Central and Gujarat governments but to no avail. The state has even claimed that no such incident took place in the city in 1984," he submitted in the court.
He cited examples of the anti-Sikh riot victims of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana, who got financial compensation from the Centre, in support of his arguments.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala issued notices to both the State and Central Governments, asking them to file their replies in three weeks, and posted the matter for further hearing a week after that.
