HC blames Gujarat govt's 'negligence, inaction' for 2002 riots

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday termed the 2002 post-Godhra riots as a result of "negligence of the state" and censured the state government for "inaction", holding that it led to an "anarchic" situation.

Passing strictures against Narendra Modi government, the court said, "Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept the defence of the state that the cause of riots was the 'general reaction from the incident of Sabarmati Express, failure on part of the police intelligence to gather such general reaction (after the Godhra train burning incident) in time and to take appropriate timely action definitely come within expression 'negligence of the State'.

"Similarly, the fact remains that the anarchy continued unabated for days ... itself suggests lack of appropriate action or adequate action, if not inaction, on the part of the state in handling the situation," it further observed.

The division bench of acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala, while castigating the state government, ordered payment of compensation for over 500 religious structures, damaged during the riots.

The state cannot shirk its responsibilities, the court observed. "There was 'inadequate endeavour' on the part of the state government in effectively handling the situation resulting in destruction of more than 500 places of religious worship throughout the state belonging only to one religious community," it said.

The judges held that "it is the duty of the state government to restore all those religious places, irrespective of the religion, to original position as they existed at the time of destruction."