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NEWS : Indian court awards compensation to victims of anti-Sikh carnage
Agence France Presse
July 05, 1996
HEADLINE: Indian court awards compensation to victims of anti-Sikh carnage
An Indian court Friday ordered the government to pay 10,000 dollars each to
the families of some 3,000 Sikhs slaughtered by mobs here following the
assassination of then premier Indira Gandhi.
Judge Anil Dev Singh said the authorities were responsible for the 1984
massacre, rejecting a plea that the killings had been committed by "private
persons."
He also ridiculed an earlier compensation of 20,000 rupees (570 dollars)
awarded by the New Delhi administration to widows and families of those
killed in the anti-Sikh riots.
"While life cannot be measured in terms of money, ex-gratia payment should be
enough to enable the victims' families to tide over the immediate financial
distress," Singh said in a 20-page order.
Some 3,000 Sikh men and women were killed by Hindu mobs in a brutal frenzy
within four days after two Sikh guards shot dead Indira Gandhi at her residence
on October 31, 1984.
The killings spread to other Indian cities, but the worst took place in New
Delhi.
Singh said the riots occurred due to the weakness, laxity and indifference of
the city administration in enforcing law, and added that the message must go to
arsonists that the government meant business.
"It is the duty and obligation of the state to enforce law and order and to
maintain public order so that the fruits of democracy can be enjoyed by all
sections of the society," Singh said.
He asked the Delhi administration to set up a panel to disburse the
compensation to the riot victims within four months.
The ruling came in response to a petition by a widow, Bhajan Kaur, whose
husband Narain Singh was murdered on November 1, 1984 by a violent mob at a
New Delhi railway station.
The judge said the government should force the rioters to pay the
compensation money and that their properties should be confiscated.
"In case it is found that an official or officials of the state did not act
in time or were indifferent to mob violence, they should be required to make
reparations to the victims and face disciplinary actions," Singh added.
More than 100 suspects involved in some 200 killings have been acquitted by
courts because of the lack of evidence while 15 men sentenced to death in three
murders are out on bail.
