Godhra panel says no to President’s privilege

Advocate Sinha said, ‘‘The Commission has said that the President’s office cannot seek privilege (under Article 74/2) of the Constitution.’’ He said that this was for the first time that a commission has issued such instructions to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, adding, ‘‘They (President’s office) have the right to appeal against this in a court if they wish.’’

The Rashtrapati Bhavan had previously refused to send the documents to the commission on the grounds of privilege but had acknowledged that the former president had spoken to the media about these letters. Narayanan had said in an interview to a Kerala-based journalist that he had written letters to Vajpayee when the riots broke out and had told him (Vajpayee) to send Army at the earliest.

He said in the interview that he did not get any reply from Vajpayee and that his requests also went unheeded. Narayanan had written these letters to Vajpayee between February 20 and March 31, 2002.