June 13, 2018:

On Monday, UK Judge has ordered declassification of the documents that are expected to shed further light on Britain's involvement in the Operation Blue Star in 1984, dismissing British Govt's argument that the move could damage the diplomatic ties with India.

UK Judge Murray Shanks, presided over a 3-day hearing of First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) in London in March, ruled that a majority of the files relating to period must be made public, while rejecting UK Govt's argument that declassifying Downing Street papers would damage diplomatic ties with India.

Judge, however, did accept that one file marked India: Political, from the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), could contain information that relates to British spy agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) and therefore Cabinet Office was entitled to rely on a technicality that exempts such material from the Freedom of Information (FOI) request appeal.

In the year 2014, UK Government documents declassified under 30-year rule to make such material public had revealed that the British Military Advice was given to Indian Forces prior to Operation Blue Star.

Then British PM David Cameron had ordered a review into this discovery, named as Heywood Review, which led to a statement in the Parliament declaring that Britain's role had been purely advisory and the advice provided by Country's Special Air Service (SAS) had limited impact in practice.

But Author of Sacrificing Sikhs: The need for an investigation' Report released last year, stated that only full transparency would reveal the exact nature of Britain's involvement.

Judge Shanks dismissed UK Government's claim that declassifying these papers would harm relations with India and stated that it is worth noting that we have heard no evidence of any adverse reaction from Indian Government resulting from the events of January and February 2014, referring to the Heywood Review.

Court has given UK Cabinet Office time until July 11 to appeal against First Tier Tribunal's decision. Alternatively, it must make the relevant documents available to Miller for his research by July 12.

Source News18

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