Delhi court junks father's plea seeking declaration of son's death during 1984 anti-Sikh riots

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea seeking a declaration of a man, who went missing during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as dead and issuance of his death certificate, citing lack of cogent proof and contradictions.An 80-year-old man had moved the court claiming that his son Ajit Singh came to Kashmere Gate in Delhi in the last week of October 1984 to purchase the motor parts but went missing after the anti-Sikh riots erupted in the first week of November.

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea seeking a declaration of a man, who went missing during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as dead and issuance of his death certificate, citing lack of cogent proof and contradictions.

An 80-year-old man had moved the court claiming that his son Ajit Singh came to Kashmere Gate in Delhi in the last week of October 1984 to purchase the motor parts but went missing after the anti-­Sikh riots erupted in the first week of November. Mian Singh, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, filed a civil suit seeking a declaration of his missing son as dead and a direction to North Delhi Municipal Corporation's Registrar of Births and Deaths to issue a death certificate. Dismissing the suit, Civil Judge Helly Fur Kaur noted that there is nothing on record to show that Ajit Singh visited Delhi in the last week of October 1984. “Despite being put a query by the Court during final arguments, plaintiff did not bring on record any ID proof of Ajit Singh nor any kind of document which could reasonably satisfy the court about his identity and existence,” the civil judge noted in an order dated November 18. Further, the judge said that the documents relied upon by Mian Singh consisted of a partly legible copy of the certificate issued by Prabandhak Committee Gurudwara Guru Nanak Satsang, a copy of a letter to the Prime Minister for rehabilitation, writ petitions, correspondence between Delhi Commission of Police, and SDM, J&K. The judge noted that no missing report is available since the police refused to register the same and the one lodged with Delhi Administration got misplaced by Mian Singh. “I have gone through these documents meticulously. However, no cogent proof is found that substantially and satisfactorily supports the claim of the plaintiff since all the documents are merely based on representations of the plaintiff. In fact, it has come to pass that there are some contradictions between the plaint and documents,” she said. The civil judge noted that in a writ petition, Mian Singh had mentioned that his son went missing in the last week of November, as against averment in the plaint that he went missing in the last week of October. Furthermore, the judge said that in the plaint before the court, Ajit has been shown as the eldest son of Mian Singh, while in the letter to the Prime Minister, he has been mentioned as a younger son. As per Mian Singh, in 1979 he went to Nepal along with his family to earn his livelihood where he started a business of motor parts trading and his son Ajit Singh worked as a contractor for the supply of auto spare parts. It is thus Singh's case that his son came to India to purchase the motor parts in the last week of October, but went missing during the anti-Sikh riots and till date, his whereabouts are not known, the court noted. The riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

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