Godhra panel asks President office to send advocate Saturday, July 2 2005 18:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -
Ahmedabad:
The Godhra inquiry commission today (July 2, 2005) asked the office of the President of India to send across certain communication between former President K R Narayanan and former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee in connection with action he had recommended to contain the post-Godhra communal flare up in Gujarat in 2002.
The Nanavati-Shah Commission today informed the President's office to reply on July 25 in this regard or send and advocate or representative to handle the matter.
The President's office had last month told the Commission that it would like to seek privilege and the former president would not like to appear before the commission in present or even send across the letters written by him to Vajpayee.
This development took place after advocate Mukul Sinha of the Jansangarsh manch filed an application taking an objection of the privilege sought by the President's office on this issue under Article 74 (2) of the constitution.
Objecting the privilege sought by the President's office, Sinha cited a Supreme Court verdict on a similar issue and said that if any such communication was a made then it should be made open in public interest.