NEW DELHI, Aug 21: The Supreme Court today transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court a petition seeking rehabilitation and relocation of displaced members of the Dalit community from a violence-hit village in Haryana.
A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit said the high court will look into the sole issue of rehabilitation of the persons affected in the 2010 violence.
“The petition stands transferred to Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court will look into the rehabilitation of displaced persons,” the bench said.
The court was hearing a PIL seeking rehabilitation and relocation of Dalit community members from Mirchpur in Haryana’s Rohtak district, who were displaced after a 70-year -old man and his physically-challenged daughter were killed by members of dominant Jat community in 2010, sparking fear among the Dalits.
Earlier, the apex court had dubbed the incident as “scar on the society” and expressed anguish after the then Congress- led state government had said the old man and his daughter were “trapped” in the house after it was set ablaze and the trial court did not hold their deaths as murder.
The apex court had earlier said it cannot pass an order to end the alleged social boycott of the Dalit community in Mirchpur as it would be ineffective.
It had asked the counsel for Haryana to apprise it as to whether a judicial panel headed by Justice Iqbal Singh has filed its report on the incident.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the Dalits, had said the community members were living under constant threat as the dominant community felt that because of them, some persons have been convicted in the case.
The counsel for Haryana had said that one company of CRPF personnel has been camping in the village since 2010 and such incidents against Dalit community members had occured there later.
15 convicts, belonging to Jat community, were held guilty
by a Delhi court for setting ablaze victim Tara Chand’s house, which caused the deaths on April 21, 2010 at Mirchpur.
They were convicted in the case by a trial court in Delhi on September 24, 2011.
The incident had taken place after a dispute between Jat and Dalit communities of the village.
The accused had resorted to rioting and had attacked the houses of members of Dalit community on April 21 as a pet dog of a Dalit had barked at a group of Jats two days earlier when they were passing through the colony, according to the charge sheet.
They had got enraged when a Dalit boy had objected to the hurling of stones by Jat youths at the dog, it had said, adding later this had led to the killings.
Three persons were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court on October 31, 2011 for their involvement in the killings.
Five others were sentenced to varying jail terms of up to five years and seven convicts were let off on probation for one year.
The court had earlier acquitted 82 out of 97 accused in the case saying the allegations levelled against them were not proved beyond reasonable doubt. (PTI)
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