Misra Commission

The Misra Commission was a one-man commission of inquiry under Justice Ranganath Misra (also spelled Mishra), then a sitting Supreme Court judge, into the November 1984 killings of Sikhs in Delhi. The Caravan says it was constituted in May 1985 under the Commissions of Inquiry Act; another account dates it to April 1985. It was asked to “inquire into the allegations in regard to the incidents of organised violence” in Delhi after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. It is often said to have been set up under the Rajiv-Longowal Accord. The sources show it was constituted a few months earlier, and that the Accord of 24 July 1985 widened its jurisdiction to Bokaro and Kanpur.

How it worked

The 1984 Sikh Archive says 2,905 affidavits were submitted, 128 selected and about 30 used. The Caravan puts the affidavits placed on record at about 300. Police officials and administrators gave evidence in camera, and lawyers for the victims were barred. The Citizens’ Justice Committee asked to cross-examine nine officials, among them the Lieutenant Governor and the Police Commissioner, and Misra refused.

What it found

Misra submitted his report in August 1986 (the Caravan), and it was placed before Parliament on 23 February 1987 (PUDR). The Caravan reports that it called the violence of 31 October a “natural reaction,” accepted that the violence from 1 November was organised, and blamed local Congress leaders and workers and “anti-social elements.” It dismissed most allegations against HKL Bhagat, saying the evidence of what passed at one meeting was “scanty.” The 1984 Sikh Archive quotes it as calling the events “more of an unavoidable backlash than organised mass murder” and police conduct “more of indifference and negligence,” and, citing Patricia Gossman’s 1991 Asia Watch report, says it recommended no criminal prosecution.

It recommended three further bodies (the Caravan): the Ahuja Committee, to settle the death toll, which that committee put at 2,733; the Kapur-Mittal committee on police conduct, whose 1990 report indicted 72 police officers; and the Jain-Banerjee committee on unregistered or poorly investigated cases, which the Delhi High Court effectively disbanded in October 1989 and which was replaced by the Poti-Rosha committee.

Criticism and what followed

The People’s Union for Democratic Rights published a critique, Justice Denied, on 22 April 1987. The Caravan calls the commission “procedurally biased” and says its findings contradict its own observations about organisation. The 1984 Sikh Archive, an advocacy site, notes that Misra closed by urging Indians to forget “the unpleasant episodes.”

Misra later served as Chief Justice of India (25 September 1990 to 24 November 1991), as the first chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (12 October 1993 to 24 November 1996), and as a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha for Odisha (1998 to 2004). He died on 13 September 2012.