Punjab People's Commission is formed, then barred from public sittings

Who: The Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP), which announced the commission on 26 April 1998, and its three members: D. S. Tewatia, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and the retired judges H. Suresh of the Bombay High Court and Jaspal Singh of the Delhi High Court. Against it stood political parties, the head of the Punjab Police and petitioners to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

What: According to Reduced to Ashes, the CCDP acted when it became clear that the Akali Dal government of Punjab did not mean to keep its election pledge to set up a truth commission. The commission was to examine complaints of illegal abductions, custodial torture, enforced disappearances, summary executions and illegal cremations from 1979 to 1997, to say whether state agencies had carried out or tolerated them, and to suggest remedies.

The CCDP received 524 complaints, of which 422 were complete and admissible. They showed 573 violations: 230 enforced disappearances, 188 arbitrary executions, 102 cases of torture in police custody, 48 of illegal detention, and four killings and one injury attributed to "militants".

The first public hearing was held at Chandigarh from 8 to 10 August 1998. A guest house cancelled its booking at the last moment, so the commission sat in a gurdwara, with thousands attending. The BJP, the Congress and the CPI called for a ban. The Punjab police chief said that letting “this illegal panel function will vitiate the atmosphere and affect police morale”. Petitions seeking a ban were filed in the High Court by Sudershan Goel and others, and the CCDP's reply was filed by its convenor, Ram Narayan Kumar. US Congressman Dan Burton told the House on 15 September 1998 that the effort to shut it down was “very disturbing”.

On 20 December 1999 a Division Bench of the High Court restrained the commission from holding public sittings, from investigating cases the courts had already decided and from issuing notices to government officers. It said the CCDP “should have limited itself to the collection of information” for the state to inquire into. The Punjab government's own written statement had said the commission “had not created any law and order problem”. The Tribune wrote that the verdict had given the members “their just deserts”.

Where: Chandigarh, where the commission sat, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Why it mattered: Reduced to Ashes calls it the first genuine initiative to investigate reports of human rights violations in Punjab. By its account the CCDP had already adjourned the commission in deference to the petitions when the order came.