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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, JULY 21: An enraged Supreme Court today asked the Centre to spell out its stand on the Srikrishna Commission Report taking serious note of conflicting statements of Cabinet Ministers on the issue of prosecution of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in connection with Mumbai 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 the newspaper reports on several Ministers’ statements 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 Justice Anand, Justice R C Lahoti and Justice 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.
Sorabjee said that the Government’s stand remained the same — that it was a matter for the State Government to act.
Justice Anand said though utmost respect was being given to the statement of the Attorney-General, it would not be out of place to ask the Government to file an affidavit spelling out its stand on the issue in clear terms.
Both the Centre and the State Government were given six weeks’ time to file their affidavits on the issue.
The Centre — in its affidavit, dated September 10, 1999 — had said, “The Central Government is not the appropriate government either to implement the findings (of the Commission) or to conduct prosecution and it cannot also direct the State Government on these two aspects since the jurisdiction of the appropriate government is exclusive, both under the law as well as by practice.”
However, Law Minister Ram Jethmalani had said yesterday that the Centre could intervene in the matter under Article 162 of the Constitution which gives concurrent jurisdiction to the Centre and the State. He also said that if the Centre gave a direction, the State Government could not go beyond it.
The Court did not spare the Maharashtra Government either, when its counsel Ashok Desai, said that the State Government has referred the matter to the CB-CID branch for further action.
“You appoint a High Court judge and is this the respect you show to his report?” the Bench asked Desai.
Desai said the State Government would take action on the recommendations of the Commission without being influenced by the Action-Taken Report (ATR), filed by the Shiv Sena-BJP government, headed by Manohar Joshi.
The direction to the Centre and the Maharashtra Government was given by the Court, while hearing a petition, filed by the Action Committee for Implementation of Srikrishna Commission Report (ACISCR), which was filed in the apex court on August 21, 1998.
The petition has prayed for the quashing of the Action-Taken Report of the earlier government in the State on the ground that that ATR encouraged “communal forces and shielded those found guilty for spreading communal riots”.
The petitioner-organisation also requested the court to direct the Maharashtra Government to pay compensation to the next of the kin of those killed in the riots that rocked the financial capital of the country in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.
In August 1996, the Maharashtra government, led by Manohar Joshi, had rejected the findings of the Srikrishna Commission, which blamed the Shiv Sena supremo of whipping up communal frenzy through his “writings, pronouncements and directives”.
Joshi reportedly had said that the Commission’s report was “anti-Hindu and biased” and did not present the true perspective.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray refused to make any comment on the Supreme Court’s directive on the Srikrishna Commission Report.
When contacted for his reaction, Thackeray said, “The matter concerns the Union and State Governments. I will not like to comment on it.”
In Pune, schools and colleges remained closed today following rumours of a possible arrest of Bal Thackeray in Mumbai. Children, who went to school, were asked by the school authorities to return home.
Some of the colleges in the city also let the students go early. However, the situation was under control, police said.
