Day 3 Arguments

February 13th 2019

The Supreme Court had listed the matter for today (13th). However, it did not hear the case because the hearing for another case (Item No. 1) lasted the entire day.

The Supreme Court is monitoring 22 alleged “fake encounters” between the Gujarat Police and civilians, which resulted in the death of several civilians between 2002 and 2006. In 2012, the Supreme Court formed a Committee headed by Retired Justice H.S. Bedi to monitor the probe into the alleged fake encounters by the Gujarat police. In March 2018, the H.S. Bedi Committee filed its final report in a sealed cover to the Court.

In the previous hearing, the Court rejected the objection to the final report raised by the State of Gujarat. The State had objected to the report on the grounds that it allegedly only reflected the views of Retired Justice Bedi. The Court rejected the objection after Retired Justice Bedi testified in an affidavit that he had consulted the other members of the Committee prior to submitting the final report.

The Court directed a copy of the final report to be made available to the petitioners.

In today’s hearing, the Court was supposed to hear any further objections to the report made by any of the parties.