The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Gujarat Government a week to file response to the final report of an apex court-appointed committee which monitored the probe into alleged fake encounter killings in Gujarat between 2002 and 2006.
The report was submitted in a sealed cover to the court in February this year by the monitoring committee, headed by former apex court judge Justice H S Bedi.
The top court has been hearing two PILs on the matter which were filed in 2007 by veteran journalist B G Verghese and poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, seeking a direction for a probe by an independent agency or the CBI so that the "truth may come out". Verghese passed away on December 30, 2014.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi referred to huge pendency of cases, including old death penalty matters in the apex court and said: "Why do we hear all these matters. Now the final report has already been filed in these cases."
It also said it has sought a report from the apex court registry on pendency of matters required to be heard by larger constitution benches of five, seven and nine judges and "the numbers are huge".
"Tell us, what we should do?," the bench posed to lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
"Of course, they are important matters, but this is also important," Bhushan replied.
The bench, also comprising justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, was apprised by Bhushan that the apex court-appointed monitoring committee had supervised the probe of the Special Task Force (STF) into the encounter killings and has recently submitted its final report in the registry.
Bhushan said that both the petitions may now be accorded final hearings. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State Government, said the state be given either one or two weeks time to file its response to the report of the monitoring committee and the PILs may be listed for hearing after X'Mas break.