SC asks ex-judge heading panel on Guj encounter cases if he shared report with other members

The Supreme Court Wednesday asked a former apex court judge, who chaired a committee monitoring the probe into the Gujarat encounter cases, whether he had shared his final report with other members of the panel.

Former apex court judge Justice H S Bedi was appointed chairman of the monitoring committee probing encounter cases from 2002 to 2006 in Gujarat by the Supreme Court.

The monitoring committee had submitted its report to the court in a sealed cover in February this year.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph was hearing a plea to make the report public.

The Gujarat government has objected to putting it in public domain, contending that it was not clear whether the views expressed in the final report were unilateral of Justice Bedi or he had shared it with other members of the monitoring committee.

The bench asked Justice Bedi to give his view on the questions raised to the apex court expeditiously.

"Let the chairman confirm to us whether he had shared the final report with other members of the monitoring committee," the bench said.

The top court was hearing two PILs on the matter which were filed in 2007 by veteran journalist B G Verghese and poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, seeking a direction for a probe by an independent agency or the CBI so that the "truth may come out".

Verghese passed away on December 30, 2014.