Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 20, 2008
The Supreme Court on Tuesday warned it would
not hear any of the pending Godhra riot cases if social activist Teesta Setalvad
represented the petitioners. The court was outraged over its criticism by
Setalvad for delay in providing justice to the riot victims. Setalvad had
attacked the judiciary in a recent write-up published in leading newspapers.
In 2003, the Supreme Court had stayed trial
in a dozen cases relating to the Godhra riots and shifted the Best Bakery
trial outside Gujarat. In this backdrop, such brazen criticism was the least
the court had expected from Setalvad, whose NGO -- Citizen for Justice and
Peace -- is one of the petitioners before the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan decried
Setalvad's write-up as "shameful" and "in bad taste".
While hearing a bail petition of a riot accused,
the Bench headed by Chief Justice referred to the write-up and expressed disgust
over her comments alleging the Godhra matters are being "fixed"
in court.
"There are 60,000 cases in the Supreme
Court. Nobody fixes the cases manually. It is done by the computer,"
a visibly upset Bench said. "We see so many articles in the media, sometimes
they are educative and sometimes we ignore it. But this article is simply
not in good taste," it added.
The Bench commented the article appeared in
several publications, including a Malayalam weekly.
So annoyed was the Bench it went to the extent
to suggest, "If she (Teesta) is representing these petitioners, we do
not want to hear it." Senior advocate Harish Salve, who was present in
the court asked the court to treat the matter with contempt and let go off
the case.
Incidentally, Salve is the amicus curiae in
the matter concerning the shifting of trial outside Gujarat, where Teesta's
NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) is pressing for trial of a dozen
cases to be shifted outside State. Setalvad, who is the secretary of the NGO,
was also involved in the Best Bakery and Bilkis Bano cases and is pursuing
a PIL to remove Gujarat Police chief PC Pandey stating he was recruited at
the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Ironically, at the time the Bench was raining
fury on Teesta, a separate Bench of the apex court was hearing the petition
filed by the CJP along with the batch petitions filed by National Human Rights
Commission in the Godhra trial. The matter is expected to come up for hearing
in March next.
