1984 riots: Congress seeks dismissal of human rights violation suit in US

New York: India’s ruling Congress party is seeking dismissal of a human rights violation lawsuit filed against it in the US by a Sikh rights group in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Indian-American Attorney Ravi Batra, who represents the Congress party in the US, filed a motion in a Manhattan federal court yesterday saying that the political party will on March 12 seek an order from District Judge Robert Sweet for dismissal of the complaint filed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). The party is seeking the dismissal of the complaint citing lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. SFJ has time till February 17 to respond to the Congress party’s motion and Batra will then have to file his response by March 10. [caption id=“attachment_1128601” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. AFP[/caption] Batra said SFJ claims that it is pursuing relief on behalf of third-parties for whom they have not established a legal ability to act. “SFJ’s sole claim to representative authority is their unadorned claim to have been ‘formed to seek justice and compensation for those Sikhs who were injured or whose family members were killed and whose property was destroyed’ during the 1984 riots. “Nowhere does SFJ even claim to have authority from any person to bring claims on their behalf, nor does it allege having been appointed the ’legal representative’ of anyone by a Court of competent jurisdiction,” he said. Batra argued that nearly three decades have passed since the 1984 riots in India and nearly two decades have elapsed since the statute of limitations expired in November, 1994. “If the standard applicable in a Court of law for legal sufficiency of a complaint or for subject matter jurisdiction was moral, and not legal, then everyone who felt distressed could sue anyone and sympathy would paint every assessment - and, surely, the events of 1984, from the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to even a single collateral injury of an innocent Indian citizen, Sikh or otherwise, is ripe for moral sympathy,” Batra said. “Importantly, however, the federal courts do not look at these Alien Tort Statute (ATS) cases from a moral perspective, but from a legal one,” he added. SFJ’s legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said the group is driven by its resolve to seek justice for the victims of the 1984-riots since justice has been denied to them for the last 30 years and political leaders have turned a “blind eye” to the plight of the victims. In March 2011, a US Court had issued summons against the Congress party in the class action law suit filed under Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) for allegedly conspiring and abetting the attacks on Sikhs in 1984 following the assassination of Gandhi. PTI