Tuesday, July 17, 2012

‘Nanavati panel extension justified’

The state government has defended extensions granted to the Nanavati commission, which was set up to investigate the Godhra carnage and its aftermath. The government said that since the probe panel was independent, the government may not be able to say when it would produce a report. 
Justifying the decade-long tenure of the panel in response to a PIL, the government told the court on Thursday that for the past two years the commission had been given extensions because it had been seeking information from the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. 
The court took up hearing again on the PIL after the commission got nine months more, on the 18th extension. 
It was also revealed that on February 22 this year, the commission had asked the SIT to produce required material. The panel had said that non-compliance would make it issue a warrant against the SIT. However, the pendency of the issue before the SC resulted in further deferment of proceedings. 

The government also stated that it would be meaningless to issue any directions to it in relation to the completion of the commission’s work. 
Further hearing of the PIL has been adjourned for two months.