The Hindu : National : Court seeks affidavit on lapses in implementation of panel report

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Thursday, Aug 02, 2007
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Court seeks affidavit on lapses in implementation of panel report

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit giving details of the cases registered against those involved in the 1992 communal riots in Mumbai and those discharged from the cases without any action taken against them.

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari, made it clear to the counsel for the parties that the court could not pass any specific order or direction on the basis of the findings of the Justice Srikrishna Commission which probed the riots as they were recommendatory in nature.

The Bench also asked the petitioners, Action Committee for Implementation of Srikrishna Commission report and others to file affidavits in six weeks indicating the glaring lapses and mistakes, viz cases not registered against those responsible for the violence, public prosecutors not appointed, cases not conducted properly etc.

The petitioners had alleged that successive governments had failed to take any action against those accused in the 1992 communal riots, which preceded the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts even though the Commission had recommended strong action against the culprits. The Bench said that it was not possible for the apex court to meticulously inquire into each case but it could always give a general direction for action when there were gross lapses on the part of the State government in taking action against the culprits as it did in the case of Gujarat riots.

Appearing for the petitioners, senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan and Y.H. Muchala brought to the notice of the court that there was gross failure of justice as three action taken reports (ATRs) submitted by the government in 1998, 2004 and 2007 failed to specify the action taken against the culprits. They said that even the Special Task Force constituted by the government to act on the recommendations of the commission had sought action against several persons including police officers for their alleged involvement in the riots. But even those recommendations were ignored by successive governments, they said.

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