Chandigarh, Sept. 11 -- Forty-two years after the shops around the Golden Temple were badly damaged during Operation Bluestar, the high court has directed the Punjab government to allot booths/ sites to the affected families at the rate of Rs.1,000 per square yard.

"We have issued the aforesaid directions in view of the rigour and hardship which the petitioners have faced for the last 42 years, which this court is of the firm view have infringed upon their fundamental rights, including the rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 21 and 19 of the Constitution," the bench of justice JS Puri and justice PS Chauhan said while deciding a clutch of petitions, some of them pending since 2000.

The petitioners had demanded directions to Punjab to a...