Delhi High Court today directed the Centre and the city government to examine the plea of a group of 1984 Anti-Sikh riot victims, who had left the city then and are seeking their due grant of rehabilitation package on basis of their residence here. Justice Vipin Sanghi directed the Delhi Government to verify the residential address of seven people of different sikh families who had left for Punjab after the riots and have returned here now and give them Rs 2 lakh each as compensation.
The Court asked the city government to ascertain the genuineness of victim’s pleas within two months and directed the Centre to grant the money for disbursement within a month thereafter. The anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984. The petitioners claimed that they were residing in various localities here in Delhi when the riot broke and their properties, including some shops, were burnt and destroyed by the attackers.
The petitioners pleaded that they got scared during the riots and left for Punjab where they stayed for more than four years. The Punjab government issued them Red Card, granting refugee status in 1986, the victims claimed. In 1988, the petitioners had returned to Delhi to start their business here and in 2006 the Centre had announced rehabilitation package of Rs 2 lakh to each family affected in the riots, the petitioners said. The petitioners claimed that the Punjab government denied them the rehabilitation package on the ground that they had moved back to Delhi in 2007. The applications for grant were filed in the Delhi government’s office and copies of the application was sent to the Home Ministry also, the victims said but no grant has materialised to them till now. A representations was also sent to the Prime Minister Office in 2009, but no grant has been sanctioned to them till now, the petitioners alleged. UNI