HC stays action on Banerjee Commission report

Ahmedabad, Mar 7 (UNI) The Gujarat High Court today stayed action on the U C Banerjee Commission report that described the Sabarmati express blaze at Godhra as an ''accident.'' A single bench of Justice M R Shah granted stay till April three, when a petition challenging the setting up of the Commission will be heard.

Nilkanth Bhatia, a survivor of the train inferno, had filed the petition in October, 2005, challenging the Commission's validity since the Nanavati-Shah Commission was already looking into the Godhra carnage and the subsequent riots across the state.

The Banerjee Commission had, on March three, submitted its final report to Railway Board Chairman J P Batra, in which it said the fire was result of an ''accident.'' The High Court in an interim order earlier had said it could not make its findings public until there was a final order on Neelkanth Bhatia's petition before it.

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