NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on December 3 gave the Gujarat government a week to file an affidavit giving reasons why an apex court-appointed committee’s report on 22 ‘fake’ police encounters between 2002 and 2006 on which a report has been filed by an apex court appointed committee.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi made its intention clear that it would hear the PILs, which have been pending for years in the court, adjourned from date to date. 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.
“Report copy needs to be supplied,” Mr. Bhushan addressed the Bench, also comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, said the state be given either one or two weeks time to bring on record certain facts relating to the case and sought hearing on the PILs after the Christmas break.
Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Nitya Ramakrishnan, for petitioners B.G. Verghese and lyricist Javed Akhtar, said the committee appointed by the court and led by its former judge, Justice H.S. Bedi, had filed a report in the court earlier this year after the completion of its inquiry into the “encounter”.
