Under renewed attack over the post-Godhra riots, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he was opposed to that violence and still denounces them.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar termed the plea as "absolutely misconceived" and said how can it sit in appeal over an order passed by another bench of the apex court.
Critical of then BJP-led Central government, Bhandari claimed the Modi's removal would have prevented the situation from deteriorating.
Several family members of Rafiq Mansuri, his friends, former neighbours and acquaintances gathered on Monday for the 'haldi' ceremony of his 19-year-old daughter Misbah at his residence in Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society, which was largely abandoned after the 2002 massacre.
The petitioner, Mukul Sinha of Jan Sangarsh Manch, wants to cross-examine Zaheera in connection with an affidavit filed by her before the commission.
"Taking note of this unreasonable stand of the Union government... it will now be open to the commission to draw its own inferences with respect to the (President's) letters (written to the then PM A B Vajpayee)'', the pnel said.
The Commission has not given any time frame for the President's office to give the letters.
The commission will visit the Godhra railway station and inspect the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express during its one-day visit.
The team comprises fire and other technical experts and they will probe the exact cause of the fire inside the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.
Justice U C Banerjee, who had described the Godhra train carnage as "accidental", said he will stand by his inquiry commission report "200 per cent."
The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice U C Banerjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting.
A fast-track court in Mehsana had acquitted all the 27 accused on June 14, 2005.
"The mood of the nation is sober. If we can take the Ayodhya judgment in our stride, we can very well pass through the Godhra judgment peacefully. I am very confident." says Kamal Farooqui, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday said it was disappointed by the Gujarat court's decision to award death penalty to only 11 convicts in the Godhra train burning case and asked the state government to appeal against the verdict.
Krishnakumar Padmanabhan finds hope, despair and anger in Godhra.
The religious leader and cleric from Godhra is the main accused in the Godhra train carnage.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the circulation of Justice G T Nanavati's report about the Godhra carnage in Gujarat.The NGO, Citizen for Justice and Peace, approached the apex court contending that a report by Justice U C Banerjee Committee on the same carnage has been stayed and a similar step should be taken for the Justice Nanavati Commission Report, which was tabled in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday.
The VHP and Shiv Sena have planned various programmes to mark the occasion.
The Gujarat government sought a postponement urging the Commission to invite the public to file affidavits about riot incidents that occurred between April 1 and May 31, 2002 since the terms of reference had been expanded recently.
An analysis of data indicated that while the candidates who allegedly benefitted from the paper leak and other irregularities have not done well, some centres have a high concentration of well-performing students.
Maulana Hussain Umarji was arrested at Signal Falia near the Godhra railway station.
Maulvi Hussain Umarji, the cleric who was branded as the key conspirator of the 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage but was later acquitted, died in Godhra after a prolonged illness, his family said on Monday. Umarji, 65, who had been bed-ridden since his acquittal in February 2011, passed away on Sunday night.
'When the incident took place we were in the opposition. We hardly know anything about it. We will study the facts to know the truth,' the railway minister said.
Arun Jaitley, one of the BJP's seniormost leaders and a friend of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive conversation with Sheela Bhatt.
A special trial court in Gujarat on Friday acquitted all six accused in the 2002 post-Godhra riots case in which three British nationals and their Indian driver were killed at Prantij town in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district, for want of evidence against them.
Gujarat: 11 get life imprisonment for post-Godhra riot
The year 2011 will be remembered in Gujarat for verdicts related to the Godhra train burning incident and the riots that followed.
The Gujarat government was "complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts", the SC said.
The Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the Central Pota Review Committee's recommendation of dropping Prevention of Terrorism Act charges against the accused in Godhra train carnage case. With this decision, nearly 134 accused in the Godhra train burning case will not be tried under the repealed anti-terror law.
Godhra commission asks President office to decide on letters
The documents, which Sinha had asked, include the letter written by Narayanan to Vajpayee on the steps being taken to control the Godhra riots.\n
A two-member commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati on Thursday submitted the first part of its report on the 2002 Sabarmati train carnage in Godhra and subsequent riots to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The commission, appointed by the Modi government after the worst-ever riots in the state and comprising retired Justices Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, examined more than 1,000 witness during the period of six years.
The committee headed by Justice U C Banerjee, which probed the Sabarmati Express blaze, had said in the report the fire was 'accidental'.
Bibek Debroy was one of the very few economists not bound by any single area of expertise and was simultaneously curious about economics and politics, myths and maths, chess and chemistry, and what not, remembers Laveesh Bhandari.
Setting aside the trial court order acquitting the accused, the Gujarat high court on Thursday sentenced eleven persons to life imprisonment for the murder of two persons during a 2002 post-Godhra riot at Meda Adraj village in Mehsana district.
The Gujarat government has granted yet another extension of six months to the Nanavati Commission, probing the 2002 post-Godhra riots, officials said on Tuesday.
