SC dismisses curative petition for probe into 'mass murder' of Kashmiri Pandits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a curative petition seeking reconsideration of its 2017 order dismissing a plea which had sought investigation into the alleged mass murder of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley in 1989-1990.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud rejected the plea and said no case is made out.

"We have gone through the Curative Petition and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra. The Curative Petition is dismissed," the bench also comprising Justices S K Kaul and S A Nazeer said.

The curative petition, filed by an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, 'Roots in Kashmir', had said the apex court was not justified in dismissing the writ petition at the admission stage in 2017 merely on presumption that the instances referred to in it pertained to 1989-1990 and no fruitful purpose would emerge as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture.

"This really amounts to failure of justice or gross miscarriage of justice caused to the petitioner in view of the fact that the petitioner has stated in the writ petition as well as in review petition that this court has not only entertained the writ petition and also passed necessary direction for trial etc. in cases where the incident pertains to even more than 30-32 years," the petition had said.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse in the apex court and is generally heard in-chamber unless a prima facie case is made out for reconsideration of the verdict.

The organisation had initially filed a writ petition in the top court seeking investigation and prosecution of several persons in connection with killing of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90, 1997 and 1998.