The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Gujarat High Court not to conduct the proceedings in the Naroda Patiya riots case hearing for the next two months. The order was passed after a damning report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case pointed out how the judge hearing the case made an unprecedented decision to segregate the appeal filed by former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani from the remaining 11 accused for expeditious hearing.
Convinced by the SIT report dated April 1 that the matter required urgent intervention, the Bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu said, "Agency has given us a report. For the present there will be interim stay on the hearing of the appeals for a period of two months." This limited stay was also granted keeping in mind that one of the judges hearing the appeals is due to retire in the first week of May.
Senior advocate Harish Salve who is the amicus curiae in the case assisting the Court and SIT informed the Bench that two options were available to either stay the hearing or transfer the matter to another Bench.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta who appeared for the Gujarat Government argued that the apex court had directed expediting the hearing of the appeals following the grant of regular bail by HC to Kodnani on medical grounds. The former Minister was convicted of the conspiracy involving Naroda Patiya riots and sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.
The Bench headed by CJI, however, took serious exception to such segregation. It said, "Judges in the HC should know that one of the allegations against her is of conspiracy and another co-accused in this case is her assistant. If you separate these two, how do you prove conspiracyIJ"