Amid Satluj row, focus on strength of judiciary and role Justice Kuldip Singh played | Chandigarh News
The ongoing debate over the ban on ‘Satluj’ — a film based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra — has put the spotlight on a story that extends far beyond its central character. It has brought into focus the intervention by the judiciary, particularly by Justice Kuldip Singh, whose landmark order transformed the disappearance of Khalra into one of the most consequential human rights investigations. Khalra was abducted from outside his Amritsar home on September 6, 1995, and murdered by Punjab Police personnel soon after he exposed the alleged illegal cremations of at least 2,097 “unclaimed” bodies in the district following suspected fake encounters during the militancy era. Within days of his disappearance, Khalra’s wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, moved the Supreme Court, while then Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Gurcharan Singh Tohra sent a telegram to Justice Kuldip Singh seeking immediate intervention. Even as Punjab Police denied knowledge of Khalra’s whereabouts, the Supreme Court widened the scope of the case. In a landmark order on November 15, 1995, a division …









