Delhi High Court seeks response from Central government in challenge to report of Delhi Minorities Commission on Delhi riots

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response from Central government on a petition to quash and set aside the report of a fact finding committee constituted by the Delhi Minorities Commission to probe the Delhi riots of February 2020..The petition also challenged several private reports on the Delhi Riots, including the Report published byHuman Rights Watch titled as "Shoot the Traitors – Discrimination against Muslims under India's New Citizenship Policy‟,Citizens and Lawyers Initiative titled as "Delhi Riots of February 2020- Causes, Fallout and Aftermath‟;Amensty International India;Constitutional Conduct Group Report titled "Citizens Committee on the Delhi Riots of February 2020: Context, Events and Aftermath"..A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice in the petition and also sought responses from Delhi Police and the publishers of the reports..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government, told the Court that the petition required examination by the Court in view of the fact that there are various petitions pending before the High Court making wild allegations regarding the riots. .Referring to the pending writ petitions concerning the Delhi riots, SG Mehta added"Petitioners making wild allegations (in the writ petitions) have contributed to the reports.. If that is so, it is vitiated.".The petitioner Dharmesh Sharma, a riots victim, urged the High Court to declare that any of such reports by any statutory authorities or private organisations or "any extra-judicial private tribunal" without any authority of law, non-est, void and ought not be relied upon by any judicial forum including the courts of competent jurisdiction where matters in respect of Delhi riot cases are pending..The reports, the petition said, claim that the riots were planned by government of the day with active connivance of the majority population and that FIRs against rioters of the minority community are false..As per the petitioner, the reports are not only biased but also impede the due process of law and the right to fair trial in the matter.."Form and content of the reports are designed in such a fashion so as to deceive the judicial forums and the public at large and to pass-off the same (in a deceptive manner) in a manner to prejudice the general public and world at large against the investigations and subsequent proceedings in accordance with law. Not only this , the said reports have been arrived at by individuals who have acted as, extra-constitutional private tribunals and have sought to give credence to their reports by attaching their former constitutional and executive posts," the petition stated. .Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani argued that it was contempt of court to put such material in public domain after charge-sheet in riots matters is filed..The matter would be heard next on March 26.