New York (March 14, 2014): A US Court is scheduled to hear 1984 Sikh rights violation case against Congress (I) on March 19. Federal Judge Robert W. Sweet will hear the arguments of the Congress (I) and “Sikhs For Justice” (SFJ) regarding US Court’s extra-territorial jurisdiction to conduct the trial against India’s ruling party for their role in genocidal attacks on during November 1984.
Congress (I) is facing the charges of conspiring, aiding, abetting, organizing and carrying out attacks on the Sikh population of India after assassination of Indira Gandhi.
The case of genocidal violence against the ruling party of India was filed by victims of November 1984 and ‘Sikhs For Justice’ (SFJ), a human rights group under the Alien Torts Statute (ATS) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), which grants jurisdiction to US Courts to hear the human rights violation cases committed outside United States if there is a connection between the tort committed and the United States.
Congress party is seeking dismissal of the rights violation case before the US Court due to lack of subject-matter jurisdiction; failure to state a claim; expiry of statute of limitation; and SJF’s legal standing to file the case.
SFJ claims that the subject matter jurisdiction is being invoked on the grounds that Plaintiffs have been granted refugee status in the US for being victims of November 1984 violence organized by the Congress party.
According to attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ, “victims of November 1984 have a strong case because the evidence proves that Congress party had virtually complete control over governance of the country and as the ruling political party was able to pursue a policy of genocide against the Sikhs under color of state law and with the apparent or actual authority of the government of India”.
Sikh human rights group is planning to present the evidence before the US court that the ruling party of India taking responsibility for the deaths of the Sikh population after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, released more $50 Million Dollars as the compensation to the affected families. The documentation shows that more than 37000 claims for deaths and injuries were filed by the victims of November 1984.
In November 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi – the then Prime Minister of India and head of Indian National Congress, a systematic and organized violence was orchestrated against the Sikhs, a religious minority, throughout the country resulting in the death of more than 30,000. For the past 29 years, the gravity, scale and specially the organized nature of these attacks was concealed by the Indian governments’ portraying them as “November 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots of Delhi”. The top Congress party leadership including Union Minister Kamal Nath, ex-MPs Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Bollywood fame Amitabh Bachchan, who openly instigated and led the death squads in November 1984 have been given complete impunity by the successive Indian governments.