US court dismisses lawsuit against Cong

• Events that do not touch & concern the US will not be heard: Court
• No further amendment is permitted and case is dismissed: Judge

New York: An American court has dismissed a human rights violation lawsuit against Congress party filed by a Sikh group in the anti-Sikh riots case, saying the group has no legal standing to file such a suit and events that do not "touch and concern" the US will not be heard in a US court. Judge Robert Sweet granted a motion by the Congress party to dismiss the 1984-lawsuit filed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), ruling that the rights group cannot be a plaintiff and individual plaintiffs are not "legal representatives".

"No further amendment is permitted and case is dismissed," Sweet said in his order on Monday, ruling that SFJ failed to show sufficient "touch and concern" to the US. SFJ said it would challenge the order in an appeals court on the grounds that the case sufficiently "touches and concerns" the US and SFJ has "institutional standing" to seek "declaratory judgment" for the 1984 violence against Sikhs. It has time till May 23 to file its appeal.

Congress party's attorney Ravi Batra said the judge has ruled that SFJ and other named plaintiffs in the case lack legal standing to file such a case. The court dismissed the case also for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and barred SFJ from filing any additional amendment of the complaint, as it would be futile.

Batra said the rule of law has reigned supreme with the dismissal of the case. The US Supreme Court established the precedent that events occurring entirely on foreign soil by and between foreigners, without touching or concerning the US, would not be heard in US courts, Batra told PTI. The judge has "put SFJ out of business of filing meritless lawsuits that only seek publicity and have no chance of getting merit-based justice, he said, adding SFJ's polygamous lawsuits cannot win in court given its faulty recipe.