The Telegraph - August 18, 2004
Riot of petitions forces court hand
- BJP swallows Gujarat slap, VHP strikes back
OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Aug. 17: The Supreme Court order today on the Gujarat riot cases came on a slew of over 15 petitions, including the main one by the National Human Rights Commission.
The rights panel’s petition followed reports of its own and others’ that pointed to coercion of witnesses, who were turning hostile.
The panel sought “protection of witnesses”, which was converted into a public interest litigation last year by the apex court bench headed by then Chief Justice V.. Khare.
Khare’s bench also kept the case pending for monitoring. After his retirement, a new bench presided over by Justice Ruma Pal continued monitoring and giving orders on the basis of arguments.
The rights panel was joined by organisations like Citizens for Justice and Peace, and danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, theatre and advertisement personality Alyque Padamsee and writer Mahasveta Devi.
The three eminent personalities sought a directive for compensation and protection of victims, and free and fair trial. They were joined by apex court lawyer Umed Singh Gulia and Gujarat residents Devendrabhai Pathak, Prakash Singh and Viraj Desai, and riot victims like Zaheera Sheikh, Bilkis Bano, Yusufkhan Pathan and Imran Mohammad Salim.
Zaheera and Bilkis had sought transfer and retrial of their cases. Zaheera is a key witness in the Best Bakery massacre case, and Bilkis was gangraped and several of her relatives were killed.
On an apex court order, their cases were transferred to a special designated court in Mumbai, and a special public prosecutor and associate were appointed to conduct the trial.
However, other petitions by the rights panel, Mahasveta Devi, Padamsee, Sarabhai and other individuals on the substantial issue of criminal jurisprudence vis-a-vis the Constitution still have to be dealt with.
The questions raised vary from protection of witnesses to conducting free and fair trial, on which general guidelines would be issued by the apex court in its final judgment once all hearings are over.
The court said the petitions of Mahasveta Devi, Sarabhai and Padamsee were disposed of in terms of today’s order but were kept open to decide whether to club them together or “delink” for deciding on their individual prayers and grounds. A decision would follow only after further arguments.
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