Blow to anti-Modi brigade,Supreme Court asks NGO to withdraw plea

New Delhi, 26 March 2012

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to Nanavati Commission, inquiring into the 2002 Gujarat riot cases, to summon chief minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the carnage.

A bench comprising justices D K Jain and A K Dave allowed an NGO, Jan Sangarsh Manch (JSM), to withdraw its petition challenging a Gujarat High Court’s order.

The NGO withdrew the appeal after the bench made it clear that it was not going to interfere with the impugned order of the high court.

The bench said it cannot monitor the working of the commission and interfere at every stage when it passes some order.

“Can’t it be an over reach by the court,” the bench said, when the NGO’s counsel and senior advocate Collin Gonsalves pressed for a direction to the Justice G T Nanavati Commission of inquiry which is going into the cases of riots for the last 10 years.

The Nanavati Commission was formed in 2002 after the post-Godhra train carnage riots. In 2004, the terms of reference of the commission had been expanded to include in its purview an examination of the chief minister’s role in the riots.