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Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009
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Home Ministry to study report

Vinay Kumar

It will set up a working group to prepare Action Taken Report

— Photo: PTI/ Subhav Shukla

A long journey: M.S. Liberhan, chairman of the commission that probed the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid, submits his report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: The report of the Justice Liberhan Commission of Inquiry, running into 27 volumes with annexures, will be examined by the Home Ministry before being placed in Parliament, along with the Action Taken Report.

The Commission’s findings are recommendatory.

Sources in the government indicated that the Home Ministry would set up a working group, to be headed by a senior official, to examine the report and recommendations and prepare the Action Taken Report.

“We would like to do it during the coming budget session itself, but it all depends on how many recommendations are there in the report. If it contains short and crisp recommendations, it may not take much time, but if there are lengthy and exhaustive recommendations, it may take some time before the government formulates its ATR,” well-placed sources said.

Judicial commissions and commissions of inquiry have been appointed to look into a wide variety of issues — from communal riots to assassinations and disputes involving States. However, sources said, they had rarely achieved anything. There were more than 40 commissions of inquiry appointed to look into major communal riots since Independence, but hardly had any recommendation been implemented.

Sources in the legal circles feel that commissions of inquiry are appointed to divert the people’s attention from the issue. Their reports are rarely used to rectify the mistakes; their recommendations are hardly implemented.

Pointing to the high-power Justice J.S. Verma Commission that probed the security lapses leading to the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, sources said it suggested disciplinary action against Congress functionaries who were responsible for Rajiv Gandhi’s programme at Sriperumbudur. But the government chose to ignore even that recommendation.

The other commissions of inquiry, including the Justice Jagmohan Reddy Inquiry Commission that probed the Ahmedabad riots in 1969, the Justice Venugopal Commission that went into the Kanyakumari riots in 1982, the Justice Srikrishna Commission that probed the Mumbai communal riots in 1992-93 and the Justice Nanavati Commission that looked into the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 also saw their reports being relegated to the background.

“In my opinion, Parliament where reports of inquiry commissions are tabled along with Action Taken Reports, should also recommend action and ensure its implementation. At the end of the day, the government is not serious at all and reports of such commissions only gather dust,” said Ashok Arora, a senior advocate, who appeared before both the Justice Verma Commission and the Justice Jain Commission.

Corrections and Clarifications

It is the Justice [P.] Jagan Mohan Reddy Inquiry Commission that probed the Ahmedabad riots in 1969 and not the Justice Jagmohan Reddy Inquiry Commission as mentioned in the eighth paragraph of a report "Home Ministry to study report" (July 1, 2009).

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