Citing Haryana ‘record’,SC asks why not shift case

houses belonging to Dalits were set on fire and a 70-year-old Dalit man and his physically-challenged daughter burnt alive in caste violence. The 60 accused belong to upper caste.

It was only in September 2010 that the Haryana government,after repeated warnings,submitted in court that it had managed to arrest all the accused.

Noting that it was not casting any aspersions on the Hisar trial court,the Bench said the victims and witnesses would feel “secure” in Chandigarh. “…the atmosphere is not conducive for a fair trial. We have seen the judicial system crumbling during terrorism,” the Bench said.

It directed Haryana Advocate General P N Mishra to take instructions on the question of transfer and file a reply to the lawyers’ affidavit,while posting the case after seven days.

“Do you know when the National Human Rights Act came into existence?” Justice Ganguly asked Mishra during today’s hearing.

When Mishra replied that it was in 1993,the judge pointed out that Haryana had only set up its state human rights commission in 2010,an indication of the interest the state had in human rights.

“Why cannot we transfer it (the case) to Chandigarh? The very fact that you have house burning and killing of people goes against you,” Justice Singhvi said.

Justice Singhvi again cut in when Mishra referred to the April 21 incident as “unfortunate”. “You can very well afford to say ‘unfortunate’ in an AC courtroom,” the judge said.

The court observed that members of the dominant community had even followed the victims and witnesses,who had migrated to other places,to warn their employers against giving them work. “Why don’t you say right now that the accused are to be acquitted?” an exasperated Bench told Mishra.