New Delhi: The Supreme Court today transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court a petition seeking rehabilitation and relocation of displaced members of the Dalit community from a violence-hit village in Haryana. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit said the high court will look into the sole issue of rehabilitation of the persons affected in the 2010 violence.
“The petition stands transferred to Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court will look into the rehabilitation of displaced persons,” the bench said. The court was hearing a PIL seeking rehabilitation and relocation of Dalit community members from Mirchpur in Haryana’s Rohtak district, who were displaced after a 70-year -old man and his physically-challenged daughter were killed by members of dominant Jat community in 2010, sparking fear among the Dalits.
Earlier, the apex court had dubbed the incident as “scar on the society” and expressed anguish after the then Congress-led state government had said the old man and his daughter were “trapped” in the house after it was set ablaze and the trial court did not hold their deaths as murder.
The apex court had earlier said it cannot pass an order to end the alleged social boycott of the Dalit community in Mirchpur as it would be ineffective. It had asked the counsel for Haryana to apprise it as to whether a judicial panel headed by Justice Iqbal Singh has filed its report on the incident.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the Dalits, had said the community members were living under constant threat as the dominant community felt that because of them, some persons have been convicted in the case.
The counsel for Haryana had said that one company of CRPF personnel has been camping in the village since 2010 and no such incidents against Dalit community members had occured there thereafter.
