Jain-Banerjee Committee, 1987 to 1989

Who: Justice M.L. Jain, a retired Delhi High Court judge, and E.N. Renison, a retired IPS officer soon replaced by A.K. Banerji, were appointed by the Delhi Administration, with the Home Ministry's approval, on the Misra Commission's recommendation. Brahmanand Gupta, whom the committee named, went to the Delhi High Court against it.

What: The Misra Commission had asked for a judicial and an administrative officer with "full authority to look into the papers and give such directions to the prosecuting agency as the facts of each case would warrant". The notification of 23 February 1987 gave the committee six months to examine whether offences of 31 October to 7 November 1984 had gone unregistered or been badly investigated, to recommend registration "where necessary" and "monitor the investigation", and to instruct the police and prosecutors.

On 14 October 1987, on the affidavit of Anwar Kaur, a Sultanpuri widow, the committee wrote to the Additional Commissioner of Police that it disclosed cognizable offences by Sajjan Kumar, Nathu Pardhan, Brahma Nand Gupta and others, and asked for an FIR at Sultanpuri police station. (The 1984 Sikh Archive says August 1987; the committee's letter is dated October.) The officer replied that the letter should go through the Delhi Administration. Brahmanand Gupta opposed the committee in the Delhi High Court by filing writ petition 3337 of 1987, and on 24 November 1987 the court issued an interim injunction barring Jain and Banerji from recommending the registration of fresh cases. The Citizens Justice Committee opposed the stay and, the 1984 Sikh Archive says, the Government did not. The committee's work "virtually came to a stand-still".

On 4 October 1989 Justices B.N. Kirpal and C.L. Chaudhary struck down the notification. They held that the power to "monitor" is a power to investigate and cannot be given to a body not otherwise entitled to investigate, and that inviting affidavits was lawful but acting on fresh allegations against individuals, made for the first time long after the events, was not. The People's Union for Democratic Rights wrote on 30 October 1989 that after eight months, on about 400 affidavits, the panel had recommended three cases: one with no accused named, the Zakhira case, which the Lieutenant Governor rejected, and Anwar Kaur's, naming Sajjan Kumar and Brahmananda Gupta. It titled its article "Murder of a Corpse".

Where: Delhi.

Why it mattered: Its notification gave it a say over which cases the police registered, and its first recommendation was frozen on 24 November 1987 by a petition from one of the men it named. Its successor, the Poti-Rosha Committee, had only the power to recommend.