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Synopsis

A Retired Bureaucrats Group, Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) have published an open statement in relation to the Zakia Jafri Judgment urging the Supreme Court Justices to suo-motu review and withdraw observations in the judgment.

The Statement signed by 92 bureaucrats states that "an appeal may, after all, be allowed or dismissed by an appellate court; it is the gratuitous comments that the bench has pronounced on the appellants and the counsel and the supporters of the appellants."

The Statement says that the judgment, "decided on 24.06.2022 has, to say the least, left citizens totally disturbed and dismayed."

"In the most astonishing comment, the Supreme Court has lauded the officials of the Special Investigation Team who have defended the State and has excoriated the appellants who have challenged the findings of the SIT," the statement adds.

The group raised the following issues:

• Has the Supreme Court now decided that appellants before it and their counsel should be proceeded against merely for being assiduous and persistent in their appeal?
• What about the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) reports and the report of amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, which had stated that investigation was required to probe the role of then chief minister Narendra Modi?

"These were weighty grounds to question the view taken by the SIT and therefore, they would confer sufficient heft to a petition that sought to challenge the SIT’s findings," the statement adds.

Furthermore, it adds, "The implications of the Zakia Jafri judgment are extremely serious. It has overturned a core precept that we believe, ought to guide an apex court established under a liberal democratic Constitution: to safeguard the basic right to life and liberty against questionable actions of the state."

The statement also submits that our distress mirrors the horror and anguish that the words used by the Supreme Court, and the events that have occurred in the aftermath of this judgment, have evoked amongst respected individuals and organisations wedded to upholding human rights and the democratic values that underlie our Constitution.

Recently, on June 24, 2022, a Supreme Court bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar dismissed the plea by Zakia Jafri challenging the ‘clean chit’ given to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 2002 Gujarat Riots. 

The bench had upheld the decision of the Magistrate in accepting the final report submitted by the SIT and rejecting the protest petition. It has also been observed that the plea by Zakia is devoid of merit.

Zakia is the widow of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was murdered in the Gulberg Society massacre that took place on February 28, 2002 in Gujarat. An FIR relating to the incident was registered with Meghaninagar Police Station, Ahmedabad. On the filing of the chargesheet, the case was committed to a Sessions Court at Ahmedabad.