Petition seeks Delhi HC to set aside Minorities Commission's Fact-Finding Committee report

A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking to set aside a report by the 'Fact-Finding Committee' constituted by the Delhi Minorities Commission in northeast Delhi violence of 2020.

The petition was filed by a lawyer Dharmesh Sharma through his advocate Ashish Dixit.

Sharma, in his petition, told the court that he is a victim of the February 2020 violence and has been "constrained to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court against the extra-constitutional design through which motivated and biased fact-finding reports have been contrived" by the respondents in order to derail the investigation and the consequent trial in relation to the northeast Delhi violence from the procedure established by law.

Sharma told the court that his family has established and manages the DRP School situated at Babu Nagar, Mustafabad, Delhi, which was burnt down during the "horrifying riots".

Followed by the complaint of the petitioner's father, Yatender Nath Sharma, two FIR were lodged in relation to the offence committed during the violence just outside the school premises. Pertinently, in relation to both these FIRs investigation is complete, and respective chargesheets have already been filed before the competent court.

"However, to the utter shock and surprise of the petitioner, statutory/constitutional commission like DMC, private bodies/association as enumerated above have come out with detailed fact-finding reports on Delhi Riots and have published the same on the internet which are not only biased but in effect, the findings and conclusions mentioned therein impede the due process of law and the right of the petitioner and others to have a fair trial in the matter," read the plea.

In his plea, Sharma has sought to quash and set aside a report dated June 27, 2020, published by the Fact-Finding Committee constituted by the Delhi Minorities Commission headed by MR Shamshad, Advocate-on-Record in Supreme Court.

It also sought to set aside the report published by Human Rights Watch titled "Shoot the Traitors - Discrimination against Muslims under India's New Citizenship Policy" along with a report by Citizens and Lawyers Initiative titled "Delhi Riots of February 2020- Causes, Fallout and Aftermath."

The plea also sought to set aside a report published dated August 28, 2020, by Amnesty International India along with the constitution and the proceedings undertaken by an extra-judicial private tribunal called - "Citizens Committee on the Delhi Riots of February 2020: Context, Events and Aftermath" as set up by one Constitutional Conduct Group.

The petitioner submitted that the 'form and content' of these reports are designed in such a fashion so as to "deceive the judicial forums and the public at large and to pass-off the same (in a deceptive manner) in a manner to prejudice the general public and world at large against the investigations and subsequent proceedings in accordance with the law."

"Not only this, the said reports have been arrived at by individuals who have acted as, extra-constitutional private tribunals and have sought to give credence to their reports by attaching their former constitutional and executive posts. The said extra-constitutional private tribunals have further claimed to have based their report (a so-called judgment) on the basis of evidence which is firstly taken without any authority of law and secondly has been taken selectively from people who have vested interest in the subject matter," the petition said.

( With inputs from ANI )

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