The Supreme Court on September 19, 2022, refused to entertain the plea seeking a probe into the killing of Tika Lal Taploo, who was killed by Islamists in Kashmir in 1989. The petition also sought the rehabilitation of family members and restoration of their properties. The plea was filed by the son of Tika Lal Taploo, Ashutosh Taploo. The bench comprising Justice B. R. Gavai and Justice C. T. Ravikumar allowed the petitioner to withdraw the plea and seek alternative remedial measures available in the law. The apex court in its judgment has asked the petitioner to first approach the Centre and the Union territory administration of Jammu & Kashmir as the issues relating to rehabilitation are purely in the domain of the executive. The bench refused to hear the petition citing a similar judgment in which the apex court refused to hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the NGO named We The Citizens seeking a probe into the killings of Kashmiri Hindus during the 1990s and seeking their rehabilitation in Kashmir valley.
Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia who appeared on behalf of Ashutosh Taploo argued:
I am on personal liberty. 32 years have passed and not even a whisper of investigation. I am trying to make out a distinction. I am aggrieved, my fundamental right is violated and due to the kind of atmosphere, I cannot pursue it there. I was asked to leave Kashmir after death and I have pursued a long to even get a copy of the documents.
The petition further said:
It is shocking that the petitioner and his family members are treated as ‘migrants in their own country when the petitioner and his family have not left the valley by choice but by force due to militancy in the region where the slogans by Militants and Islamic fundamentalism for Kashmiri Pandits were convert leave or die.
Further, in the statement submitted by Bhatia, it was pointed out that Supreme Court has ordered constituting an Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe to investigate similar matters even after three decades, like the 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi riots and the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. The petition also submitted that although the Law Commission Report under Chairperson Justice (Retd.) M. K. Hanjura had asked that Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Prevention, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sale) Act, 1997 be suitably amended, but no action has been taken to date. The petition said:
The petitioner due to fear cannot move to their ancestral homes more so because they are even not aware as to what has happened to their ancestral home and property.
Tika Lal Taploo a prominent Hindu personality of Kashmir was shot dead by the Islamists of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) on September 14, 1989, in Srinagar. He was an active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was one of the first Kashmiri Hindus to be killed by Islamists in Kashmir, which triggered the ethnic cleansing of the community from Kashmir in 1990.