SIT 1984

"SIT 1984" is the name people use for the special investigation teams formed to re-examine the cases of the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi that police had closed without trial. There have been two main ones, and they are often confused.

The Home Ministry's SIT, 2015: A committee under Justice G. P. Mathur, set up in December 2014, reported in January 2015, and the Home Ministry then formed a three-member SIT, announced on 13 February 2015. Its head was IPS officer Pramod Asthana, with Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge, and Kumar Gyanesh of the Delhi Police. It was to re-examine closed serious cases, file chargesheets where evidence allowed, and report in six months. By March 2017 the Home Ministry told the Supreme Court that, of 59 cases taken up for further probe, the SIT had filed chargesheets in only four. Of 293 cases it had looked at, 199 were closed. In August 2017 the Court appointed two retired judges, J. M. Panchal and K. S. P. Radhakrishnan, to examine the closures.

The Supreme Court's SIT, 2018: On 11 January 2018 a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and D. Y. Chandrachud found that the first SIT had not done further investigation in 186 cases where closure reports had been filed, and ordered a new one. It was headed by retired Delhi High Court judge S. N. Dhingra, with IPS officer Abhishek Dular and retired IG Rajdeep Singh, and was given two months. It filed a report in a sealed cover on 29 November 2019; the bench sent Dular back to the CBI but did not formally disband the team. On 15 January 2020 the Centre told the Court it accepted the team's recommendations. On 3 November 2022 the Court took a summarised report on record in the petition of S. Gurlad Singh Kahlon, argued by H. S. Phoolka. The report noted that in one Kalyanpuri case charges covered only five killings, though the challan listed 56 murders.

Case counts differ between reports (293 scrutinised, 250 investigated, 241 with closure reports, 199 or 186 sent for review) because they describe different stages.

Key moments

• 30 January 2014: Al Jazeera reports that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wants an SIT on the Delhi cases, a promise his party had campaigned on.
• 13 February 2015: the Home Ministry announces its SIT.
• 24 March 2017: chargesheets in 4 of 59 cases; the Court asks for the 199 closed files.
• 16 August 2017: two retired Supreme Court judges are named to examine the closures.
• 11 January 2018: the Court orders the Dhingra SIT.
• 29 November 2019: its sealed report is filed.
• 3 November 2022: the Court takes the summarised report on record.

Where it stands: The latest hearing found is that of 3 November 2022, adjourned for two weeks.