Wednesday, April 13 2005 17:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The Godhra commission has issued a notice to former President K R Narayanan asking him whether he would like to present his reply before it on his comments in the media questioning the failure of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government in controlling the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002.

This was informed today (Apr 13, 2005) by the two-member Commission comprising Justice (retd) G T Nanavati and Justice (Retd) K G Shah during the course of the hearing.

The commission said that they had received an acknowledgement from the former President stating the notice has been received.

The Commission will decide on May 4, whether there was a need to issue a summon to Narayanan in this regard.

In the last hearing, the Commission heard the application of advocate Mukul Sinha seeking to cross-examine Narayanan regarding his comments in the media.

The Government counsel, had however, opposed the same saying that there was no need to summon the former President, as the whole application was based on the media reports and that the courts and judicial forum do not consider it fit to give credence to the reports.