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The Gujarat High Court on Friday expressed its astonishment over the intention of the Nanavati-Mehta Commission probing the 2002 riots to make the SIT report into the massacres the basis for its own report.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding repeated extensions of the term of the probe panel at the expense of tax payers' money, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala observed that the Nanavati-Mehta Commission is an independent entity and, thus, need not make the SIT report its basis for coming to any conclusion about the post-Godhra riots of 2002.
The high court made this observation following the State Advocate General Kamal Trivedi showing the Bench a communication from the Nanavati-Mehta Commission to the State Chief Secretary requesting extension of its term for at least three months after the submission to it of the SIT report that has been filed in the metropolitan court as per directions of the Supreme Court.
The commission, comprising Justices GT Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, has asked the Supreme Court ordered special investigation team (SIT) to give it a copy of its report on the probes into the Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam massacres during the riots following the killing of 58 kar sewaks in the Sabarmati Express inferno at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The SIT has not yet given the probe panel its report that runs into few thousand pages.
The Bench asked the State Advocate General why the State Government granted a nine months' extension to the commission till end of December this year when the probe panel had asked for only three months time.
The high court thereafter adjourned the matter till May 9, by which date the State Advocate General and the Nanavati-Mehta Commission are expected to file their replies.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding repeated extensions of the term of the probe panel at the expense of tax payers' money, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala observed that the Nanavati-Mehta Commission is an independent entity and, thus, need not make the SIT report its basis for coming to any conclusion about the post-Godhra riots of 2002.
The high court made this observation following the State Advocate General Kamal Trivedi showing the Bench a communication from the Nanavati-Mehta Commission to the State Chief Secretary requesting extension of its term for at least three months after the submission to it of the SIT report that has been filed in the metropolitan court as per directions of the Supreme Court.
The commission, comprising Justices GT Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, has asked the Supreme Court ordered special investigation team (SIT) to give it a copy of its report on the probes into the Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam massacres during the riots following the killing of 58 kar sewaks in the Sabarmati Express inferno at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The SIT has not yet given the probe panel its report that runs into few thousand pages.
The Bench asked the State Advocate General why the State Government granted a nine months' extension to the commission till end of December this year when the probe panel had asked for only three months time.
The high court thereafter adjourned the matter till May 9, by which date the State Advocate General and the Nanavati-Mehta Commission are expected to file their replies.
