annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Gujarat
acquitted by the trial courts and to
recommend whether or not to prefer
appeals. The Supreme Court asked the
Advocate General to scrutinise in
conjunction with the State Law Secretary
all the orders of acquittals given by the
trial courts and suggest whether or not
appeal should be filed in these cases. The
Court further directed that in future, in all
cases pertaining to acquittal in riots cases,
the Advocate General’s view would be
taken into consideration by the Law
Department before deciding whether or
not to prefer an appeal. 15 The Advocate
General informed that out of 217 cases, the
government had decided to prefer appeals
in 45 cases and 16 were under process and
the remaining 156 cases were pending
consideration. 16
Obtaining justice remained
insurmountable because of the sheer
unwillingness of the State government to
prosecute the culprits. The lack of
protection for witnesses, threat to human
rights defenders, public prosecutors acting
more than defence lawyers and biased
judiciary at the state level were some of
the key reasons.
Best Bakery Case: Twists and turns of
the denial of justice
The Best Bakery case explains the
twists and turns of the denial of justice and
the difficulty in establishing justice.
Taking the entire chronology of events
right from the date of incident to the
judgement of the trial court and that of the
High Court, Supreme Court remarked “if
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one cursorily glances through the records
of the case, one gets a feeling that the
justice delivery system was being taken
for a ride and literally allowed to be
abused, misused and mutilated by
subterfuge.”
“The investigation appears to be
perfunctory and anything but impartial
without any definite object of finding out
the truth and bringing to book those who
were responsible for the crime,” it said.
In a stinging criticism of the public
prosecutor, the court said he acted more as
a “defence counsel” and added “the trial
court in turn appeared to be a silent
spectator, mute to the manipulations and
preferred to be indifferent to sacrilege
being committed to justice.”
Chronology of events:
01.03.2002: 14 people were burnt
alive and six injured when a mob set
ablaze Best Bakery on the outskirts of
Vadodara in the aftermath of the February
27 Godhra train carnage.
10.03.2002: Case handed over to
crime branch police and 21 accused
arrested.
09.05.2003: Trial begun in the Fast-
Track court of Additional Sessions Judge
H U Mahida.
17.05.2003: Prime witness Zahira
Sheikh and her mother Shaherunissa
turned hostile in court.
27.06.2003: All 21 accused acquitted
by the trial court for want of evidence.
07.07.2003: At a press meet in
Mumbai, Zahira demanded retrial of the
case alleging that BJP MLA Madhu