The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred its hearing to April 14 on a request by Zakia Jafri on her plea against the clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 Godhra riots.
A bench presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar, however, told the petitioner's counsel that the matter, which has been adjourned a number of times, should no longer be deferred again.
“We cannot keep on adjourning it. We have to hear it someday. You decide the date, it should not be adjourned anymore,” the bench told the counsel for Zakia as a letter was circulated on her behalf for posting the case after Holi vacation.
Zakia, the wife of ex-MP from Congress, Ehsan Jafri who was one of the 68 people killed in Ahmedabad's Gulberg society, has challenged the Gujarat High Court's October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision.
On February 8, 2012, the Special Investigation Team filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was "no prosecutable evidence" against them.
The court had previously said it will also look into the application by social activist Teesta Setalvad on becoming a co-petitioner in Zakia's plea ahead of hearing the main case.
Jafri's counsel had earlier told the apex court that a notice was required to be issued in the plea as it pertained to alleged "larger conspiracy" during February 27, 2002 and May 2002. It had also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, the petitioner filed a protest which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering "substantiated merits".
Jafri was killed at Gulberg Society on February 28, 2002, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.