The Delhi High Court on Thursday allowed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene in the appeals filed by the victims of the infamous Hashimpura massacre of 1987, in which a trial court had acquitted 16 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel on March 21 this year.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice R.K. Gauba allowed the intervention application of NHRC and posted the case for further hearing on February 17, 2016. In its plea, the NHRC had sought further inquiry into the 28-year-old incident and framing of guidelines for cases of custodial violence.
The court also asked BJP leader Subramanian Swamy about his locus standi in filing an appeal against a fast track court order, which had rejected his plea seeking a direction to the Uttar Pradesh police to probe into the role of Congress leader P. Chidambaram, who was Union Minister of State for Home at the time of Hashimpura massacre.
The Bench had earlier said that since the issue required serious consideration, it would hear all the parties in detail. The court observed that the occurrence of the incident was not in dispute and even the trial court had accepted it in its judgement of acquittal.
The court, which had issued notices to the 16 PAC personnel on May 29 on the appeal against the trial court verdict, had also asked the victims’ counsel about the possibility of payment of compensation to the affected families through the Delhi State Legal Services Authority as well as the amount of compensation.
Forty-two persons were killed in Hashimpura village in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh on May 22, 1987, when they were allegedly shot by the PAC personnel and their bodies were thrown into a canal.
Forty-two persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Hashimpura village in May 1987 when they were allegedly shot by PAC personnel
