Six days before Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the Gulbarg Society massacre case of 2002, the Supreme Court on Monday gave an assurance to hear a plea to recall an order for a probe against Modi and 62 others.
The SIT had been tasked by a Supreme Court division bench?it was led by Justice Arijit Pasayat (now retired)?on April 27, 2009 ?to take steps as required in law? and investigate any involvement of Modi, his Cabinet colleagues, senior police officials and bureaucrats in the post-Godhra communal riots.
The order was in response to a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive with 39 others at the Gulbarg Society on February 28, 2002, a day after the attack on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra.
It was this particular order of the Supreme Court which first turned the SIT attention formally into the involvement in the riots of the Gujarat state machinery.
Acting on the complaint of Zakia, the SIT asked Modi to appear before it on March 21.
But senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for former BJP MLA Kalu Maliwad, today objected to the April 2009 order to probe Modi and the others without affording them an opportunity to be heard.
Following this, a special three-judge bench of Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said: ?We will consider whether this order (April 27, 2009) in entirety is to be continued or to be recalled.?
The court agreed to hear the allegation in a detailed manner tentatively on a date during ?the week beginning on April 5?. Jethmalani submitted that ?the April 2009 order was passed without hearing these 63 persons. They are entitled to be heard?.