New Delhi: The Supreme Court on October 17 dismissed allegations by the accused in the Best Bakery case that media had distorted observations of the court during the hearing of the appeal filed by National Human Rights Commission which caused immense prejudice to their right to fair trial.

Rejecting such a claim by their counsel, senior advocate K T S Tulsi, a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare said, "By and large I have not found anything wrong in the press reports."

Tulsi supported by Gujarat government counsel P C Mishra, who also appeared for a member of National Commission on Scheduled Caste and Tribes, said that words have been put in the mouth of the Bench presenting a distorted form of the proceedings that took place in the apex court.

Justice Khare said, "I have not found anything that has been put in my mouth." The Chief Justice was very critical of the manner in which the Gujarat government had earlier filed an "eye-wash" of an appeal before the High Court in the Best Bakery case and reprimanded it asking it to observe its "raj dharma".

When the counsel stated that they were quite appreciative of the role played by the court, the Bench said, "We do not want any appreciation of the role we are playing. What we want is a fair trial in the riot cases."

PTI