Monday, March 6 2006 14:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has today(Mar 6,2006) directed the UPA Government not to table in Parliament the findings of the Justice U C Banerjee Committee on Sabarmati Express train carnage in Godhra, untill the court concludes hearing on a related petition. Justice M R Shah of the High Court has asked the Centre and all parties concerned not to table the report in Parliament till the court concludes hearing on a petitionfiled by a relative of a survivor from the Sabarmati Express train carnage in which 59 persons were killed on February 27, 2002.

The petition, filed on September 2005 by one Nilkanth Bhatia, questioned the formation of the Justice U C Banerjee Committee, since another high-powered Commission (Nanavati-Shah Commission) formed by the Gujarat Government was already in place and was investigating the matter.

On basis of this petition, the Gujarat Government had earlier managed to temporarily prevent the three top Gujarat police officials from deposing before the Banerjee committee in November-December last year after being summoned in connection with the case.

In the final report, Justice Banerjee had stated that the fire in the S-6 coach of the train was 'accidental,' which was not in accordance with the 'conspiracy' theory floated by the state Government.

The Banerjee Committee was formed by the Railway Ministry to look into certain technical aspects of the train carnage including the cause of the fire in S-6 coach of the train.