Indian SC asks Gujarat govt to render justice or quit
IANS, New Delhi
In a scathing attack on the Gujarat Government for filing an "eye wash" of an appeal in the Best Bakery riot case, the Supreme Court on Friday doubted the state's intentions on punishing the guilty and observed that it should quit if it cannot punish the rioters.Flaring up after perusing the grounds of appeal filed in the high court challenging acquittal of all the accused in the case, a Bench of Chief Justice VN Khare, Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice SB Sinha questioned the "raj dharma" of the Narendra Modi Government. "I have no faith left in the prosecution and the Gujarat Government. I am not saying Article 356. You have to protect people and punish the guilty. What else is raj dharma? You quit if you cannot prosecute the guilty," an anguished Chief Justice said. The Bench then summoned the Chief Secretary of the State and the Director General of Police and directed them to be personally present before the court on September 19 to answer as to "who has drafted such an appeal" to be filed before the court. Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the State Government said that it was not an earlier system in which the Chief Ministers depended on the mercy of others. "He is elected democratically". The Chief Justice shot back saying "democracy does not mean you will not prosecute anyone." The Gujarat Government counsel said that there were some shortcomings in the criminal justice system and added that in the last 40 years of riots in the country not many rioters have been brought to book. He cited the example of 1984 anti-sikh riots cases and said that not a single person had been found guilty so far. This angered the court even more as it questioned the State Government saying "Are you saying that the rioters in Gujarat should also be acquitted. What else are you saying?" The court was hearing an appeal filed by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has sought transfer of Best Bakery, Godhra carnage and two other riot-related cases outside the State. Appearing for NHRC, senior advocate PP Rao read out the grounds of appeal filed by the State Government in the high court in the Best bakery case and said despite the trial court indicting the manner in which wrong evidence was collected by prosecution and wrong accused were roped in, the State has not sought retrial of the case.
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