Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 28 The Division Bench of the High Court has dismissed an appeal seeking setting aside of writ court judgment whereby compensation was sought on account of death of father of the appellant in firing way back in 1993.
The son of the deceased challenged the judgment of a single judge dismissing his petition for compensation on account of the death of his father in police firing. Before that he had approached the then State Human Rights Commission with a complaint that his father-Taseem Ahmad Raina was an agricultural labourer and was killed in firing by the Border Security Forces on 27.09.1993 at Kulgam and the Commission made enquiries in the matter and upon report of the Director General of Police dated 12.08.2014 to the effect that enquiries in the matter revealed that father of the petitioner-appellant was a militant and was killed in an encounter in connection with which FIR No.117/1993 was registered, dismissed the complaint.
The then Commission while dismissing the complaint observed that the investigation reveals that the deceased was a militant and had died in an encounter and that the incident had happened in the year 1993 and the Commission was approached in the year 2014 by the petitioner-appellant.
Challenging both the verdicts of SHRC and writ court the appellant-Javed Ahmad Raina apart from making the claim of compensation of rupees one crore has also sought completion of investigation in FIR No.117 of 1993 registered under Section 307 RPC, 3/4 TADA and 3/25 Arms Act, P/S Lalpora.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Puneet Gupta while upholding the writ court verdict said that the incident in which the father of the petitioner-appellant was killed took place in the year 1993 and for a comparative long distance of time till 2014 none of the family members much-less the petitioner-appellant who may be a minor at the relevant time approached any authority so as to complain that he was not a militant or that the investigation pursuant to the FIR are not being conducted in a proper manner.
“No averment has been made as to why even the other family members of the deceased remained silent and did nothing in the matter and allowed it to be left for the petitioner-appellant to take care of it on attaining maturity. Any inquiry or investigation in respect of an incident of 1993 at this stage appears to be totally unwarranted and of no use”, DB recorded.
The DB said, the order of the Commission is very explicit and the Commission has adopted the procedure as prescribed under the Jammu & Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, and got the matter enquired into.
The enquiry, court added, has found that father of the petitioner-appellant was a militant and was killed in an encounter. “Accordingly, in view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, we do not find that the Writ Court has committed any error or illegality in dismissing the petition. The appeal, as such, lacks merit and is dismissed”, DB concluded.
Court with regard to the completion of the investigation pursuant to the FIR said that it may or may not have been closed but the same stands covered by the decision of the PIL referred to by the Single Judge.
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