The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to decide whether to follow Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna’s decision against a magisterial inquiry into police encounter deaths, such as Batla House, or stick to its mandatory guideline for an independent probe.

The court sought NHRC’s response by March 18.

The division bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah was referring to a revised set of guidelines issued by former Chief Justice of India and NHRC chairperson A S Anand on December 2, 2003, making an independent inquiry into police encounter deaths mandatory.

Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Khanna had last month refused sanction for a magisterial probe into the September 19, 2008 encounter deaths of Delhi serial blasts suspects Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid in Batla House, at Jamia Nagar area of South Delhi.

“If police refer the matter to the L-G, and he takes a decision... do you (NHRC) allow your guidelines to be given a go-by?” the court asked.

On the defensive, the commission submitted that it had kept its inquiry “on hold” as the case was sub judice in the High Court. To this the Bench replied, “The NHRC has already got a machinery to deal with such complaints... we (court) were under the impression that you have already started an inquiry.”

The Supreme Court had earlier refused to entertain a request for a probe into the encounter. “There are many issues concerned here,” the court said. “We want you to clarify whether your guidelines can be set aside by an executive order.”

... contd.