The Supreme Court expressed its satisfaction about the investigation done by the Special Investigation Team into post-Godhra riot cases of 2002 in Gujarat but took strong exception to the allegation by a rights activist that SIT has been befooling courts. "This is not done. Our accepting the reports of the SIT then mean that this court has also been fooled by the SIT. Such type of allegations are not acceptable. This has to be expunged from the application otherwise it would mean we are being fooled by the SIT," a Bench headed by Justice D K Jain said about the application in which a plea has been made for the re-constitution of SIT. The remarks were made by the Bench when senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi,appearing for Gujarat government,said it was entertaining a "scandalous" application. Rohatgi read out the content of the application which said "it is the blatant desire by the SIT to fool the courts". Senior advocate Aspi Chenoy,appearing for the rights activist Devendrabhai N Pathak,apologised to the court for the language used in the application. "The briefing counsel should also be responsible. We will not accept such type of allegations in the application," the Bench,also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam,said. The Bench said it will examine the application in January after receiving the response of senior advocate Harish Salve,who is assisting the court as amicus curaie,in nine cases of Gujarat riot which is also monitored by SIT headed by former CBI Chief R K Raghavan.
