UK judge orders Blue Star papers to be made public

A UK judge has ordered the declassification of documents that are expected to shed further light on Britain's involvement in Operation Blue Star in 1984, dismissing the British government's argument that the move could damage diplomatic ties with India.Judge Murray Shanks, who presided over a three-day hearing of the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) in London in March, ruled on Monday that a majority of the files relating to the period must be made public and rejected the UK government's argument that declassifying the Downing Street papers would damage diplomatic ties with India.

The 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 the Cabinet Office was entitled to rely on a technicality that exempts such material from the Freedom of Information (FOI) request appeal.

A freelance journalist has been investigating the exact nature of the then Margaret Thatcher led government's assistance to the Indian Army operation on Golden Temple in Amritsar.In 2014, UK government documents declassified under the 30-year rule to make such material public had revealed that British military advice was given to Indian forces prior to Operation Blue Star.Then British Prime Minister David Cameron had ordered a review into this discovery, named as the Heywood Review.