US court reserves decision in case against Badal

Chicago – A US Court of Appeals here has reserved decision on whether a Sikh rights group should get more time to show it had served summons on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal

A panel of three circuit court judges held a hearing Friday to decide whether Badal was served with federal court summons during his visit to Milwaukee, Wisconsin last year as claimed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in a case alleging torture and extra judicial killing of Sikhs.

The trial court had dismissed the SFJ lawsuit against Badal on the grounds that a Chicago based Sikh Surinder Pal Singh Kalra was served with the summons Aug 9 in Oak Creek High School instead of Badal.

The appeals court Friday reserved its decision whether the plaintiffs should be given additional time to conduct jurisdictional discovery on the issue as SFJ attorneys argued that 30 days given to plaintiffs were not sufficient.

Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) have alleged that there have been several hundred cases of extrajudicial killings, police tortures and human rights violations against the Sikh community in Punjab during 12 years of Badal rule -from 1997 to 2002 and from 2007 to present.