November 23, 2006
The Deccan
Herald
Apex court slams Gujarat over riots
The Supreme
Court on Wednesday asserted that it was powerless when the state
machinery was conducting a shoddy investigation into a large number
of Gujarat communal riots cases in order to shield the culprits, but
at the same time it held itself
“duty-bound
to ensure justice”.
Justice K G Balakrishnan, heading a three-judge bench, was
responding to the contention of the Gujarat government that a PIL in
a criminal case was totally foreign as per the judgement of the apex
court in the fodder scam case.
The court, while fixing February 20 as the next date of hearing,
directed amicus curiae senior counsel Harish Salve to prepare a
brief note of eight major incidents of riots in which 17 FIRs have
been registered.
The court also
directed to file brief notes of 1,900 cases in which closure reports
filed by the Gujarat police have been found wrong by the Supreme
Court-appointed panel. The Court, however, delinked petitions
seeking the transfer of three suits for damages outside the state in
which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been made defendant
number one and fixed December 4 for consideration of three transfer
petitions, which have been filed by the widows of those killed
during riots seeking damage to the tune of Rs 26 crore.
The Gujarat government had earlier challenged the locus standi of
the petitioner who were neither family members nor relatives of the
victims and said that petitions filed by the third party under the
garb of PIL are not maintainable, and therefore the same should be
dismissed.
The court, however, was not inclined to agree with the contention
raised by the state and made it clear that if there is failure on
the part of the state to rule in accordance with the law then it
cannot remain a mute spectator.