Railways challenge Gujarat HC stay on Banerjee report

Ahmedabad, Mar 8: The Centre today (Mar 8, 2006) challenged the Gujarat High Court's order staying any further action on the U C Banerjee Committee report which described the Godhra train carnage as an ''accident''.

The Centre, through the Railways ministry, challanged Justice M R Shah's interim stay order on the ground that the petition on the basis of which the judge passed the order yesterday was not maintenable.

Petitioner Neelkanth Bhatia, a survivor of the Sabarmati Express train blaze which claimed lives of 59 passengers on February 27, 2002, has questioned validity of the formation of the Banerjee panel by the Railway ministry when the Gujarat government-appointed Nanavati-Shah Commission was already probing the same matter, that is the cause of fire in the ill-fated S6 coash of the train.

The single judge bench of Justice Shah, while hearing the petition, ruled that the Banerjee panel report should not be acted upon by the Centre or the Railway Ministry or other authorities until the petition is disposed off.

Filing an appeal before a division bench today, the Centre through the ailway ministry, submitted that Justice Shah should have first considered the maintenability and locus standi of the petitioner before entering into the merit of the matter.

The appeal also challenged the judge's conclusion that the scope of inquiry of both the Nanavati-Shah Commission and the Banerjee Committee was the same.

The appeal will come up for hearing tomorrow before the bench of Justice M S Shah and Justice S D Dave.

Questioning the bonafides of the petition, Railway counsel Nirupam Nanavati alleged it was motivated by somebody, adding the petitioner was not directly concerned with who should probe the incident and secondly it had no relevance to the outcome of the case.

Commenting on the appeal, Bhatia's counsel Yogesh Mehta said the Railway ministry wanted to table the report in Parliament and act on it. He described the stay order by single bench as valid, adding it did not require any interference at this stage.

Indicting the Banerjee Committee for making public the contents of its report on the Godhra train carnage, Justice M R Shah had also directed all the authorities concerned, including the Railway Ministry and the Central government, '' not to publicise the report further and not to act upon the report in any manner till the court concludes hearing the petition''.

Bhatia's petition is listed for next hearing on April 3.

UNI

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