NEW DELHI, Feb. 3: An anguished Delhi high court on Wednesday pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for not appointing a special public prosecutor to expedite the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice of the Delhi high court Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Rajiv Sahai asked the CBI to file its reply by February 8 as to who should be appointed as special public prosecutor for the pending cases.
The court, after hearing the argument of H.S. Phulka, the lawyer of the NGO, November-84 Carnage Justice Committee, said, "You (CBI) should respect the sentiments of people involved in this. It’s a reasonable demand for expediting hearing of cases. When special lawyers can be appointed for probing the Gujarat riots cases why not in this?"
The court made these observations after hearing the PIL filed by the NGO, seeking direction to appoint special public prosecutor and to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis.
Mr Phulka referred the Zahira Sheikh case in Gujarat and pleaded that a special public prosecutor should be appointed in consultation with the victims to handle the riot cases as "Delhi police and CBI are handling the case in a casual and slipshod manner".
Meanwhile, hearing a PIL filed by civil rights group, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), which alleged that labour laws are being violated by the private contractors involved in the Comm-onwealth Games projects, the same bench appointed a four-member committee to look into the matter.
In another case, the high court expressed its inability to interfere in the nursery admission process and suggested the aggrieved parents to approach the grievance cell of the education department for relief.
AGE CORRESPONDENT