The high court extended by two weeks its earlier stay order on sending of case papers of the accused in the Godhra carnage case to the Godhra sessions court.
In a major setback to the state government, the Gujarat high court on Thursday upheld the Central Pota review committee’s (CPRC) recommendation that charges framed under Pota against the accused in the Godhra train fire case, be withdrawn.
A division bench of justices Bhagwati Prasad and Bankim Mehta pronounced the verdict on Thursday afternoon. The bench, however, gave a two-week stay on its order as Vijay Patel, counsel for the petitioner, asked for time to appeal in the Supreme Court.
The high court also extended by two weeks its earlier stay order on sending of case papers of the accused in the Godhra carnage case to the Godhra sessions court from the special Pota court.
“The decision is significant because the high court of the state has upheld, for the first time, the Pota review committee’s opinion that there was no conspiracy behind the torching of the Sabarmati Express,” said Mukul Sinha, senior counsel who represented the accused of the Godhra carnage case before the Nanavati commission.
“The verdict has also nullified the first part of the report of the Nanavati commission that concludes that a conspiracy was responsible for the Godhra incident,” Sinha added.
Coming as it does just ahead of the general elections, the high court ruling, which implicitly rejects the Nanavati commission’s conclusion that the Godhra train fire was the result of a conspiracy, is seen as a major blow to the BJP-ruled state government.
The order is also significant because, in October last year, the supreme court had given the high court the authority to hear any petitions that were filed against the opinion of the CPRC on Pota cases. The apex court had given this order even as it had upheld the constitutional validity of the review committee’s opinion which, the supreme court, had added was binding on the special Pota court trying the Godhra carnage cases.
Sardarji Maganji Waghela, who lost his son in the fire that engulfed the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, was the petitioner in the case in which the high court gave its order on Thursday.
Waghela had filed a writ petition challenging the opinion of the Pota review committee in the Gujarat high court in March last year, even before the supreme court gave its judgement in October upholding the constitutional validity of the CPRC opinion. The Gujarat government had also been made a party in the case after Waghela had filed his complaint; the government had also opposed the CPRC opinion on the Pota cases.
Vijay Patel told DNA that they intended to go to the supreme court against the order. When told that the apex court had already upheld the opinion of the CPRC, Patel said, “We can appeal in the supreme court because the high court’s judgment is about the constitutional validity of the CPRC and not about its opinion.”
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