Railway Ministry files appeal against HC order on Banerjee Committee

Ahmedabad, Dec 16 (UNI) The Railway Ministry today filed an appeal before the Gujarat High Court against its earlier order quashing the appointment of the U C Banerjee Committee to probe certain aspects of the Godhra carnage incident, ''as unconstitutional, illegal and void''.

''We have filed the Letter Patent Appeal (LPA) before a division bench, challenging Justice B N Patel's order quashing the Commitee's appointment,'' said the Railway counsel.

The Committee, headed by the former Supreme Court judge, was set up to probe the incident in which 58 'kar sevaks' had died in a fire in S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express in February 2002.

In his order, Justice Patel had ruled that the Indian Railways had no authority to appoint such a Committee and had done so in gross violation of the provisions contained in Sections 113, 114, 115, 116 and 119 of the Indian Railway Act.

The ruling had been made on a petition filed by a carnage survivor, Neelkanth Bhatia, who had challenged the setting up of the Banerjee Committee at a time when Justice Nanavati-Shah Commission was already probing the matter.

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