Summons, served or not.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Representatives of India’s Congress Party will be in US federal court this March to argue in favor of dismissing a case filed against them and Party member Sonia Gandhi by the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) activist group.
The court date has been set for March 19, at which point the Congress Party will implore the US judicial system to dismiss the SFJ case against them outright. The motion, which also contends that the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes in question has long since expired, was filed on January 17.
SFJ has been locked in a tumultuous legal battle with Gandhi and her Congress Party for several months now over allegations that she played a crucial role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Punjab, which led to slaying of thousands of Sikh followers. SFJ filed a human rights case against Gandhi, and attempted to serve her with a subpoena when she was in New York City last September.
Gandhi was a patient at the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, getting treatment for an undisclosed medical condition. SFJ maintains that they served her a subpoena at the time, but Gandhi and her legal team have denied it, saying that the method employed by SFJ was improper and that there is neither verifiable proof nor witnesses that can attest to seeing Gandhi being served.
The Congress Party itself also attempted to say that they were not properly served with a subpoena as per the outlines of the Hague Service Convention, but a US court ruled last September that they were, in fact, properly served.
US courts backed up that up in November, giving SFJ until December 3 of last year to re-file their case. Now, however, it looks like the Congress Party is striking back.
The SFJ has until February 17 to respond to the Congress Party’s motion to dismiss. The SFJ, led by legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has said that the Congress Party is invoking old and irrelevant court cases to be used as precedence in their defense, and that their human rights violations must be heard in court regardless of when they occurred.
The case will go before Federal Judge Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com