Srikrishna report -- SC asks state to list steps

Srikrishna report -- SC asks state to list steps
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 26: The Maharashtra government will now have to explain to the Supreme Court why Bal Thackeray’s arrest last July in connection with his role in the Bombay riots turned out to be such a fiasco.

This follows an order passed by the apex court today directing the state government to file an affidavit within seven weeks explaining the steps taken by it to implement the recommendations of Srikrishna Commission which inquired into the Bombay riots of 1992-93 and the subsequent serial bomb blasts in that city.

In fact, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dr A.S. Anand specifically asked the Maharastra government to report the steps taken by it after July 21, 2000, which was the date on which the Supreme Court made the scathing observations that led to the departure of Ram Jethmalani from the Central Government.

The Supreme Court had taken umbrage to the claim made by some Central ministers, including Jethmalani, that Thackeray could not be arrested for the inflammatory statements he was alleged to have made way back in 1992-93 because any such belated action was time-barred. In its oral observations on July 21, 2000, the apex court said the Central ministers had violated the principle of ‘‘collective responsibility’’ by deviating from the Centre’s stand endorsing the implementation of Srikrishna Commission’s recommendations.

But four days after the Supreme Court made such observations, the trial court in Mumbai dismissed the criminal case against Thackeray as time-barred and ordered his release on the very day on which he was arrested after the police made elaborate law and order arrangements throughout the city.

The trial court let off Thackeray despite the prosecution’s argument that, as per Section 469 of CrPC, the period of limitation had not commenced because the delay was entirely on account of the state government’s laxity in giving the necessary sanction for his prosecution.

It would be interesting to see how the state government would report the trial court’s failure to appreciate that argument while dismissing the case against Thackeray.