US Appeals Court Reserves Decision in Parkash Badal Human Rights Case

Parkash Singh Badal
Parkash Badal

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As per media reports, A US court of Appeals has reserved its decision on whether a Sikh rights group should be given more time to serve summons to Punjab chief minister Parkash Badal in a case accusing him of human rights violations.

The case against CM Badal came before the US Court of Appeals after the trial court had dismissed the human rights violation lawsuit on the grounds that a Chicago based Sikh, Surinder Pal Singh Kalra was served with the summons on August 9, 2012 in Oak Creek High School instead of CM Badal.

A panel of the appeals court reserved its decision on whether Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) should be given additional time to conduct jurisdictional discovery to determine whether Chicago-based Surinder Pal Singh Kalra was served with summons instead of Badal, which became the basis for the dismissal of the case against Badal by a Wisconsin court.

The rights group’s attorneys argued in the appeals court that 30 days given to plaintiffs were insufficient to complete jurisdictional discovery to find out whether it was Kalra or Badal who was served the summons and if Kalra’s testimony was fabricated or influenced by agents of the chief minister.

According to evidence submitted by the Sikh group’s attorneys to the appeals court, “(Badal)’s representatives arrived from India on or about February 17. Kalra claims he discovered the papers in his trunk on February 18 but made no attempt to reconcile this claim with his sworn affidavit of January 29 that he had left the papers in the Oak Creek High School”.

“This, together with the procurement of Kalra’s affidavit and his pre-hearing sequestration at the Pfister Hotel strongly suggests that Kalra’s testimony may have been influenced, if not generated, by Badal’s agents,” the attorneys said. In a complaint, some Sikh leaders from Amritsar alleged that their families are being threatened and being forced by Badal’s administration to withdraw a human rights violations case against him.

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