Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has said that the Railway Ministry has no authority to set up a commission of inquiry into the Godhra train fire.
The court was hearing an appeal by the Railway Ministry to remove a stay on tabling of the Banerjee Commission report. The court rejected the plea.
The Banerjee Commission, which probed the cause of fire on Sabarmati Express, said in its report that Godhra train fire was an accident and not an act of arson.
Coming down heavily on the Commission for making its report public, the HC observed that there was a prima facie case in favour of the petitioner under Section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act and section 119 of Railway Act.
The Railway had challenged that the stay had been granted by a single-judge bench of the same court on Tuesday while hearing a petition, filed by a survivor, that had challenged the very validity of the U C Banerjee Commission, appointed by the Railway Ministry to probe certain aspects of the fire in S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train, when a Commission appointed by the state government was already in place.
Railway questioned the locus standi of the petitioner Nilkanth Bhatia to object to the setting up of the high-level Commission, alleging that the constitution of the panel would prejudice a trial, as he was not an aggrieved party and it directly did not concern him who was conducting the probe.
Bhatia in his petition had questioned the setting up of the panel after two-and-a-half years when the state government already had appointed a commission of inquiry.
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The court also expunged the part of the single-judge bench order which said that by submitting the report the Commission has overreached the process of law, while pointing out that there was no interim stay on the submission of the report.
In an earlier sitting, the high court had come down heavily on the UC Banerjee Commission, saying the panel should have waited for the final judgment of the high court before making his report public.
"Since the final judgment is pending, it is a matter of regret that Justice Banerjee made his report public," Justice M R Shah had said in an interim order.
In a snub to the enquiry process, the court said it can take judicial notice of this report and it was expected of Justice Banerjee to wait till March 7.
"Justice Banerjee Commission has tried to nullify the present proceedings of this court and overreached the proceeding of this court. Such actions will lead to collapse of the entire judicial system, " Justice Shah said.
The court had earlier put on hold the tabling of the commission's report in Parliament.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was scheduled to make a statement in the House on the findings of the Banerjee Commission but had to back out after the court imposed the restrictions.
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