By IANS,
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has advised the government to review the claim for enhanced compensation of a 1984 anti-sikh riots victim, according it “sympathetic consideration”, but has called for caution in ensuring that the claim was “genuine”.
Justice Sanjeev Khanna in an order last week directed the government to probe the matter thoroughly again so that justice could be meted out to the claimant. The court asked the government to complete the probe within four months.
Megh Singh had asked for an increase in compensation amount for the death of his father Dayal Singh, who died during the 1984 riots in the capital.
“The case requires sympathetic consideration keeping in mind the human angle but at the same time caution and care has to be taken that the claim is genuine,” Khanna said.
Megh Singh had also filed a case before the screening committee of the government in 2004, which was rejected.
The government’s counsel submitted before the court that the case was considered by the committee and said that no ground was found for giving enhanced compensation.
The government counsel added that the name of the deceased does not figure in the Ahuja Committee report and intimation of death given by the claimant could not be established by police.
But refuting the government’s claim, the court pointed out that the name of the deceased was there in the Ahuja Committee report and intimation of his death was also there in the records of police.
Denying the government’s contention that Megh Singh did not claim the initial compensation of Rs.20,000 and approached the government only in 1996, the court said: “The petitioner is illiterate. It is possible that he may not be fully aware and conscious of his rights and entitlement to compensation. This to some extent explains the delay on his part in approaching the respondents (government).”