Gurlad Singh Kahlon

S. Gurlad Singh Kahlon is the petitioner in S. Gurlad Singh Kahlon v. Union of India, W.P.(Crl.) No. 9 of 2016, the Supreme Court case in which the Court ordered a fresh Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the November 1984 cases that the Home Ministry's SIT had closed. LiveLaw (2019) and WION (2018) describe him as a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). Reports of the case say little about him personally; what is on record is his petition and what the Court did with it.

Key moments

• 2016: Kahlon files the writ petition (LiveLaw, 7 May 2025). In March 2017 the Court asks the Centre for the files of the 199 cases the first SIT had decided to close (WION, 11 January 2018).
• 11 January 2018: Kahlon tells the bench that the first SIT “decided to close 199 of them after scrutiny”, out of 293 cases. The Court, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, agrees the panel had not done a detailed probe in many cases, holds that “it would be appropriate that a fresh SIT should be constituted”, and names a team headed by the retired Delhi High Court judge S. N. Dhingra (WION; LiveLaw, 29 November 2019).
• 29 November 2019: the Dhingra SIT files its report in a sealed cover. The bench of Chief Justice S. A. Bobde and Justices B. R. Gavai and Surya Kant has to decide whether it can be shared with Kahlon (LiveLaw).
• 3 November 2022: a bench of Justices A. S. Bopanna and P. S. Narasimha adjourns the petition by two weeks to read the SIT report. Senior Advocate H. S. Phoolka, for Kahlon, argues that “sham trials are being taken up” and cites FIR 433/84 of Kalyanpuri police station, where “charges were framed only for 5 murders and not 56 murders” (LiveLaw).
• May 2025: a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issues notice on six appeals challenging the acquittal of 14 accused; the report says Kahlon now seeks implementation of the Dhingra Committee's recommendations (LiveLaw, 7 May 2025).

What he is remembered for: he is the named petitioner in the case in which the Supreme Court reviewed the Home Ministry SIT's closures and ordered a fresh SIT. The later orders are the Court's; the outcome of the reopened cases is still being argued.