Muslim India headlines
  1. Hope to get justice now: Pathribal victim’s son
  2. 'Murder': SC cites AFSPA, lets Army choose what kind of trial
  3. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: THE MAN WHO KNEW THE FUTURE
  4. Face covering prohibited in Manglore College
  5. Mosque demolished in Rajasthan, Waqf Board blames Imam
  6. Indian Muslims Still Paying the Price of Partition
  7. ‘Centre ignoring Muslim freedom fighters’ : JUHind
  8. Hyderabad: Hindu Vahine activists triggered riots, Four arrested
  9. Syed Ghulam Akber Engineer is no more
  10. Fact finding Report on Communal Violence in Hyderabad
More Muslim India headlines
World headlines
  1. Iran, big powers agree to keep talking
  2. West to target Iran's nuclear fuel work
  3. Developing Economies Ready to Check Bluff of Developed World
  4. Iran cuts oil to Greek firms over payment problems: Report
  5. US bents: No Iran oil-import sanctions for Japan, 10 EU nations
  6. Israel attack killed over two dozen civilians in Gaza
  7. Netanyahu Says U.S. and Israeli ‘Clocks’ Differ on Iran’s Threat
  8. Obama warns Israel against ‘Loose Talk of War on Iran"
  9. Lady Tonge resigns Lib Dem party whip over Israel remarks
  10. India Asserts Against US Israel Effort to Name Iran in Delhi Terror Attack
More World headlines
Nation headlines
  1. 'Cops fanning Islamophobia'
  2. Fissures within NDA over presidential candidates
  3. Sachar, Mishra, Harsh Mander, yet the Silent Budget of 2012 ...... and our inaction
  4. Seeking legal opinion to free blast accused: UP CM
  5. Saffron extremists hurl meat on temple to trigger riots, four on run, one arrested
  6. Kashmir report rules out ‘simple return to pre-1953 situation'
  7. CCS may be briefed on Kashmir interlocutors report on Thursday
  8. Narendra Modi tops negative votes in global poll
  9. FRANKLY SPEAKING : Arms lobby planted the story
  10. SC spreads its media gaze from court to crime to contempt
More Nation headlines
you are here: Home /
 

2002 riot case: HC issues contempt notice to Guj govt

By Agencies
Updated Thursday, 16 February 2012 12:02:47 - IST (UTC +5:30)

Ahmedabad: In fresh trouble for the Narendra Modi government, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued a contempt notice to it for not obeying its order to compensate people whose shops were burnt down in the post-Godhra riots. The notice comes a week after the court indicted the state government for non-restoration of religious places destroyed in the communal frenzy.
A Division Bench of Justices Akil Kureshi and C L Soni asked the Ahmedabad district collector to reply by March 14 as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated, based on a petition filed by 56 riot victims whose shops were gutted during the 2002 riots.
56 shop owners whose establishments had been burnt down in Rakhial area of the city had applied for compensation after the Centre announced additional relief package for riot victims in February 2008.
As there was no response from the district authority, they moved the high court through NGO Jan Sangarsh Manch, seeking direction to the collector to consider their applications and provide compensation.
Based on their application, the court had passed an order in September last year directing the collector to examine their applications for compensation.
The petitioners said early this month they received a communication from the collector's office that all the 56 applications had been dismissed in August 2011 itself.
Following the communication, the victims filed a contempt petition against the collector and the state government for not complying with court's order.
Alleging that the collector's office did not present full facts of the case to the court, the petitioners said since the court's September order was subsequent to disposal of their applications, non-payment of compensation amounted to contempt of court.
In a scathing indictment of the Modi government, the Gujarat High Court had on February 8 termed the 2002 riots as “negligence of the state” and censured it for “inaction”, holding that it had resulted in an “anarchic” situation.
The court passed strictures against the government while ordering it to pay for restoration of 500 odd religious structures destroyed during the riots on a petition by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat.
“Even if we for the sake of argument accept the defence of the state that the cause of riot was the general reaction from the incident of Sabarmati Express, the failure on part of police intelligence to gather such general reaction (after the Godhra train burning incident) in time and to take appropriate timely action definitely come within expression 'negligence of the State',” the court had said.
“Similarly, the fact remains that anarchy continued unabated for days... itself suggests lack of appropriate action or adequate action, if not inaction, on the part of the state in handling the situation,” it further observed.
“The state cannot shirk from its responsibilities,” the court maintained while noting, “Once we hold that there was 'inadequate endeavour' on the part of the state government in effectively handling the situation resulting in destruction of more than 500 places of religious worship throughout the state belonging only to the one religious community.”
Passing the order, seen as a major setback to the Modi government, the court had concluded, “It is the duty of the state government to restore all those religious places, irrespective of the religion, to its original position as it existed at the time of destruction.”
The court said if those structures had already been restored, the government should compensate persons in charge of those places by reimbursing the amount spent by them.
The HC held that the policy adopted by the state government restricting compensation only to damaged residential and business premises and not extending it to places of worship was violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 25 and 26 of the Constitution.
“The policy of the state government taken in defence is one of evading the Constitutional responsibility and will bring anarchy in the society, and thus, is detrimental to the establishment of the principles and the tenets of our Constitution,” it added.

Tags: Agencies Gujarat, HC, Modi, Contempt Notice, riots, compensation

  • 'Cops fanning Islamophobia'

    MUMBAI: The last time Muslims and Dalits created a joint political platform in Maharashtra was in the 1980s. Led by former smuggler and don Haji Mastan, the Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh (DMSM)...

    2012-05-07 17:11:22 |
    0 comments
  • RDX not used in 13/7 blasts, but found in...

    MUMBAI: Chemical analysis of a powder-like substance collected from a Byculla apartment where two suspected Pakistani 13/7 bombers stayed has proved that it is the deadly explosive RDX. The...

    2012-05-03 17:34:23 |
    0 comments
  • Hope to get justice now: Pathribal victim’s son

    Srinagar : For Abdul Rashid Khan, it has been a long wait for justice. Twelve years after his father Juma Khan was allegedly picked from his house, killed in a fake encounter and dubbed a foreign...

    2012-05-03 17:30:23 |
    0 comments
  • 'Murder': SC cites AFSPA, lets Army choose what...

    New Delhi : The Supreme Court gave the Army full “discretion” to choose between a court martial and a criminal trial for seven officers accused of killing five persons in an encounter in...

    2012-05-03 17:27:07 |
    0 comments
  • Syed Ghulam Akber Engineer is no more

    New Delhi. Syed Ghulam Akber, member Markazi Majlis-e-Shoora (Central Advisory Council) and former Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind breathed his last at Care Hospital in Hyderabad at about 1 p.m....

    2012-04-30 20:38:08 |
    0 comments
  • Fact finding Report on Communal Violence in...

    Government responsible for Communal Violence in Hyderabad city RSS outfits Communalizing the situation and polarizing population by developing Communal Sentiments. Introduce and pass Communal...

    2012-04-25 11:01:25 |
    0 comments
  • 'Cops fanning Islamophobia'

    MUMBAI: The last time Muslims and Dalits created a joint political platform in Maharashtra was in the 1980s. Led by former smuggler and don Haji Mastan, the Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh (DMSM)...

    2012-05-07 17:11:22 |
    0 comments
  • Fissures within NDA over presidential candidates

    NEW DELHI: The Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) decision to not support the Congress party candidates for the upcoming presidential elections seems to have led to fissures within the National Democratic...

    2012-05-01 17:28:10 |
    0 comments
  • Sachar, Mishra, Harsh Mander, yet the Silent...

    The annual budget of a country reflects the Governments priorities. It is, in fact, the preface of the financial year's book. However, there is no noticeable mention of Muslims and other minorities...

    2012-04-22 12:15:55 |
    0 comments
  • Seeking legal opinion to free blast accused: UP CM

    Faizabad: The Uttar Pradesh government has sought legal opinion to withdraw terror cases against falsely implicated accused of November 23, 2007 serial blast case in Faizabad and Lucknow court...

    2012-04-15 19:47:03 |
    0 comments
  • How UP changed its mind that ousted Maya, bring...

    The many shifts among voters that went into the SP’s tremendous victory This election has been a role reversal for Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. From 206 seats in...

    2012-03-23 20:15:44 |
    0 comments
  • BJP motion defeated in Rajya Sabha too

    New Delhi: Government today heaved a sigh of relief as amendments moved by opposition to the President's Address on NCTC were defeated in the Rajya Sabha, where UPA is in minority, with the help of...

    2012-03-20 17:53:56 |
    0 comments