Supreme Court closes all cases related to 2002- Gujarat riots !

New Delhi – Supreme Court has directed to close down all cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Bench of Chief Justice Uday Lalit stated, noting that all the cases have become infructuous with the passage of time and there was no point in conducting a hearing now.

Many petitions related to the Gujarat riots are pending in Supreme Court.  Supreme Court stated that the lower Courts have completed trials in 8 cases out of nine related to the Gujarat riots. The hearing of a case related to Naroda is at an advanced stage and final arguments are being heard in the trial Court. In such a situation, there is no need to independently hear any case related to the riots.

The SC noted the cases in Gujarat 2002 riots had become infructuous with time and with near completion of trialhttps://t.co/j0Zw2jR4pK

— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) August 31, 2022

The report of special investigation team (SIT) giving a clean chit to Narendra Modi is legal ! – Supreme Court

On the 24^th of June 2022, Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri against Prime Minister Modi. The petition was filed against the report of the Special investigation team (SIT) giving a clean chit to the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

69 people died in communal violence at Godhra

There were communal riots in Gujarat after the incident of arson on the 27^th of February 2002 at Godhra. 69 people had died in those communal riots along with the former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, the husband of Zakia Jafri.  Dead bodies of 38 people could be retrieved, but 31 people were reported to be missing along with Jafri.

Supreme Court then set up SIT  

Supreme Court set up the special investigating team (SIT) in the year 2008 for investigating the Gujarat riots, giving directions to SIT to submit all reports on hearing. Later, the complaint lodged by Zakia Jafri was also handed over to SIT for investigation. SIT gave a clean chit to Modi and in 2011, submitted a closure report to the Court Magistrate as per the directions of the Supreme Court. When the report is signed by the person under whose chairmanship the investigations are conducted, and he signs it giving permission to close the investigations, it is called a ‘closure report’.

In 2013, Zakia Jafri filed a petition with the Magistrate against this closure report. The Magistrate had dismissed the petition. Later, Zakia Jafri went to Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision.