This is the 18th extension given to the probe panel that was set up for three months to enquire into 2002 riots.
The Nanavati and Mehta commission enquiring into the communal riots of 2002 was granted extension of three months upto March 31, 2011 by the state government on Tuesday. This is the 18th extension given to the commission which was constituted on March 27, 2002 for just three months. Retired Supreme Court judge, Justice GT Nanavati, heads the commission while a former judge of the Gujarat high court, Akshay H. Mehta, is its member.
“The government has granted the commission an extension of three months as proposed by us,” said official sources in the commission. The enquiry panel has already spent Rs6.37 crore in probing the cause of the riots and identifying the people behind it.
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Gujarat high court seeking information on how long the commission will function and when it will deliver its final report. The PIL has also expressed concern over of the huge expenditure incurred by the exchequer on the commission. Last Thursday, the high court bench had asked the state government to furnish information acquired from the commission on whether it wishes to seek an extension or it intends to deliver its final report on the riots.
Further hearing of the PIL is scheduled for December 26.
The commission is also facing litigation over the question of issuing summons to chief minister Narendra Modi for cross-examination as demanded by the civil rights organization, Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM). The JSM has been representing some riot victims before the commission. When the commission refused to summon Modi, the JSM moved a petition before the high court against the commission's order.
The commission gave its first report in 2008 regarding the fire in the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002. The fire, which killed more than 50 people travelling by the train, led to large-scale riots in the state.
More then 1,000 people were killed in the communal violence. In its first report, the Nanavati commission concluded that the attack on S6 coach of the train was the result of a "pre-planned conspiracy". The report had contradicted the conclusion of the Justice UC Baneji committee that the fire was accidental. The train fire and the subsequent communal riots had become politicised and the then Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had set up the Banerji committee to probe the train fire.
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