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Angry Supreme Court adjourns Srikrishna case for 6 weeks

An enraged Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to spell out its stand on the Srikrishna Commission report taking serious note of conflicting statements of Union Cabinet ministers on the issue of prosecution of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in connection with the Bombay riots in 1992-93.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand said, "It is distressing that comments are made by Cabinet ministers while a petition seeking implementation of the Commission's report is pending before the highest court of the land."

Referring to an earlier affidavit filed by the Union government saying it had no role in the matter and that it was for the state government to act in this, the Chief Justice drew Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee's attention to thenewspaper reports on several ministers's statement on this.

"Is there something like collective responsibility or not?" the Bench asked and wondered whether "this concept is not known to this government."

"Telling something to the court and playing to the gallery saying something else to the public, hardly behoves a person in a civilised society," the bench comprising Justices Anand, R C Lahoti and K G Balakrishnan said.

The court directed the attorney general to file an affidavit making clear the stand of the Union government and also asked the Maharashtra government to file a similar affidavit stating its stand on the Srikrishna Commission report. The Supreme Court adjourned for six weeks its hearing on the petition on the Srikrishna Commission report.

The Samajwadi Party, the Congress and other organisations had filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, asking for the Srikrishna Commission report to be implemented.

While adjourning the hearing on Friday, the court also ordered that the Srikrishna Commission report should not be reassessed by the Maharashtra government.

The Bombay police, it was felt on Thursday, would only decide its course of action in the Bal Thackeray case after the petition was heard in the Supreme Court. The Maharashtra government had given the city police the go-ahead last Saturday to prosecute the Shiv Sena supremo for his articles in the party daily, Samna during the December 1992-January 1993 riots in Bombay.

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