New Delhi: In an unprecedented order, the Supreme Court today (Aug 23, 2004) entrusted the Advocate General (AG) of Gujarat the task of reviewing the decision of the State Law Department not to file appeals in over 200 riot cases where the accused have been acquitted by the trial court.

It is a practice in all the States that the public prosecutor, in a criminal case, gives a report to the Law Department about the acquittal in a case suggesting whether or not to file appeals in the higher court.

Resorting to this unprecedented measure, a bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia said the AG will scrutinise all the orders of acquittal given by the trial courts and suggest whether or not appeal should be filed in these cases.

Going a step further, the bench said in future, all cases pertaining to acquittal in riots cases, the AG's view would be taken by the Law Department before deciding whether or not appeal should be preferred by the State. The court gave him four months time to go through the files and then file a report before it stating the progress in the matter.

Last week, the court had formed a 10-member committee of top police officials in the State to consider whether or not it was required to reopen the cases earlier closed by the investigating officer.