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New Delhi, The Delhi High Court today set aside an order of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) holding Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti guilty of racial prejudice against African women by conducting the midnight raid at their house in South Delhi’s Khirki Extension area on January 29 this year.
In the September 29 order, NHRC had directed the Delhi government to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation to each of the 12 women for subjecting them to illegal detention, intimidation, abuse, assault and indignity at the hands of Bharti, who was then the law minister of Delhi.
Setting aside the NHRC order, a Vacation Bench comprising Justices S Muralidhar and Manmohan Singh asked the commission to hear the matter afresh by affording an opportunity to Bharti to put forth his explanation.
Earlier, a single judge Bench of the HC had rejected Bharti’s appeal against the NHRC order forcing him to approach the Division Bench. Bharti had sought a declaration that the NHRC order was a nullity as it had been passed without hearing him. He had also sought a compensation of Rs 100 crore from the Centre, NHRC and the Delhi Government.
NHRC had passed the order on mere prima facie findings, instead of taking the proceedings to the logical conclusion. Even as the case was pending in the HC, the NHRC had on December 22 accepted Bharti’s plea for hearing him on the incident and also asked the city government to defer for two months the payment of monetary compensation of Rs 25,000 each to the victims.
