US court dismisses 1984 riots case against Sonia

An appeals has affirmed a district judge’s order to dismiss a human rights violation lawsuit filed against Congress president Sonia Gandhi by a Sikh group in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, ruling that the petition lacked merit.

The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it found the arguments presented by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in its case against Gandhi “without merit“. The bench of Circuit Judges Jose Cabranes, Renna Raggi and Richard Wesley affirmed the district court’s order of June 9, 2014 in which the judge had dismissed the human rights violation Plawsuit filed by SFJ against Gandhi.

US District Judge Brian Cogan had granted Gandhi’s motion to dismiss the complaint due to “lack of subject matter jurisdiction“.Gandhi’s lawyer, Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra, termed the appeals court ruling as “historic“ and said the judges have upheld a nation’s sovereignty by declaring Gandhi free of any fault despite SFJ’s “reprehensible defamatory efforts“.