New Delhi, April 20: The Supreme Court today expressed anger at “behind-the-scene” activities even as the SIT probing the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots sought reconsideration of its direction to drop senior Gujarat-cadre IPS officers Geeta Johri and Shivanand Jha from the investigation.
“Who has told you? What we feel is that something is happening behind the scene. If he has disclosed to the media, then he has no business to be the public prosecutor,” a three- judge bench, of Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam told Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam acting as amicus curaie in the case.
The bench made the remarks after Subramaniam submitted that another public prosecutor has written to the SIT to transfer the trial outside Gujarat. Earlier, one of the public prosecutors had resigned alleging lack of cooperation from the SIT and the trial judge.
“How did you learn this?” the bench told Subramaniam who said he learnt it from media reports.
The submission provoked the bench which said “whatever happens between the SIT and the public prosecutor the press comes to know. It is very unfortunate. But we will not go by media reports”.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Gujarat government, objected to Subramaniam’s submission and wondered what interest the Centre had in the present case.
“The Centre is not a privity to the case. So, how is it interested?” he said adding it was surprising that even the state, which is a party, is not aware of any such move by one of the public prosecutor’s plea for transfer of the trial.
The bench said it would pass an appropriate order on the SIT’s plea to reconsider the apex court’s April 6 order asking the probe agency to drop Geeta Johri and Shivanand Jha from the investigation.
“They have given reasons for it. We will pass appropriate orders,” the bench told the amicus who said the SIT’s plea to reconsider the earlier judicial order was improper.
The apex court also said it would consider at a later stage the plea of Shivanand Jha that he should he heard before being removed from the SIT as otherwise it would cause irreparable damage to his personal and career reputation.
“We did not seek your consent when we appointed you. Should we seek your order before passing the order (removal)?” the bench snapped at senior counsel Vikas Singh appearing for the IPS Officer.
The bench granted three days time to certain NGOs to file their response on the allegations of Gujarat government that they had made false claims on the communal riots and tutored witnesses.
Under the apex court’s direction, the SIT is probing 10 cases relating to post-Godhra riots–Gulbarg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Narodao Gaon, Naroda Patya, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghavapura.
—PTI