HC reserves verdict on Railway's appeal against stay order

Ahmedabad, Mar 9 (UNI) Gujarat High Court today reserved its verdict on an appeal filed by the Railway Ministry against the stay ordered on any further action on the U C Banerjee Commission's report, which described the Godhra train carnage as an ''accident''.

The Railways submitted that the stay had been granted by a single bench judge of the same court on Tuesday while hearing a petition, filed by a survivor, that had challenged the very validity of the U C Banerjee Committee, appointed by the Railway Ministry to probe certain aspects of the fire in S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train, when a Commission appointed by the state government was already in place.

A division bench comprising Justice M S Shah and Justice S D Dave, after hearing the both the counsels of the Railway and the petitioner and also State Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, who supported the petitioner's contention, reserved its order till next week.

Making a strong plea for grant of permission to table the report in Parliament, Railway counsel Nirupam Nanavati said the stay on further action on the report may be continued, but the report should be allowed to be tabled in the House. ''MPs want to know proceeding are being stalled. There will be no prejudice if MPs read the report,'' he submitted.

He said that the Railway Ministry had appointed the Commission to ascertain the precise cause of the fire and to recommend suitable measures to curb such accidents in future. ''It was the property of the Railways and passengers who are citizens of the country use it.

So it is obligatory on the part of the Railways to conduct an iinquiry.

Moreover, the Committee was to ascertain developments or events after the train left Muzaffarpur and passed through states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh before reaching Godhra, which could have led to the incident, and the state-appointed Commission does not powers to probe these aspects,'' he said.

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