No relief to Nanavati Commission on Bhatt's demand for records

The Gujarat High Court today disposed of the review petition filed by Justice G T Nanavati Commission, which is probing the 2002 riots, against a court's order allowing the suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt to inspect the state intelligence records.
A division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala said the Commission refused to allow Bhatt to inspect the records without being aware of the High Court's October 2012 order, hence it won't entertain the review petition.
On October 12, 2012, the Advocate General had assured the HC that all the documents demanded by Bhatt would be provided and on the basis of this statement the court had directed the Commission to allow Bhatt to inspect the documents.

Bhatt later moved the HC again, saying the Commission had not allowed him to inspect the documents. Three days ago, the HC directed the Commission to allow Bhatt to inspect the records, irrespective of whether they are classified.
But the Commission still denied Bhatt access, it also filed a review petition against the High Court's order.
The review petition said access was denied because of the state government's letter.

In the letter dated October 18, 2012 Gujarat government told the Commission that some of the documents are secret, prohibited from disclosure to any person other than those in the office of the concerned CID, IB and protected under the Official Secrets Act.

Bhatt and People's Union for Civil Liberties had filed a Public Interest Litigation seeking access to riots-related intelligence records from Gujarat government.
Bhatt has alleged in his affidavit before the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the Chief Minister, asked the police to go soft on rioters when violence had broken out across Gujarat following the Godhra train burning incident in 2002.