SC to consider vacating order in Gujarat riots case

The Supreme Court today said it would consider lifting order staying the pronouncment of judgement by the trial court in one of the 2002 riot cases in Gujarat in which three British nationals were killed by a mob after knowing that they belonged to a particular community.
A special bench headed by Justice H L Dattu asked the Special Investigating Team (SIT), which probed the nine riot cases, to file an appropriate application for modification or vacation of its October 26, 2010 order by which the trial court in Ahmedabad was asked to go ahead with the trial with a direction that it would not pronounce its judgement.

The bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and M Y Eqbal, said it would consider the matter on September 16 after getting response of the Gujarat Government and other stake holders in the matter.
The bench said it was considering to pass some order as letters have also been received from some of the accused that they are in jail for almost 10 years.
"At the end of the day, we have to tell them and we should be in a position to tell them whether they have to be inside the jail or they have to come out," the bench observed during the brief hearing about the case in which three British nationals were killed allegedly by 10 people.

The bench, which perused the fresh progress report filed in a sealed cover, was also told that in another case the trial was over and the judgement has been delayed as the concerned judge was transfered and new judge has come.