The Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted the Gujarat government to inspect documents submitted to the court by Justice H.S. Bedi, a former judge of the top court, who had earlier concluded that three deaths had occurred in fake encounters in the state between 2002 and 2006.

Activists and Opposition parties had put the number at 24. A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul posted the matter for further hearing to February 15 after briefly going through records of the case and a request by advocate Rajat Nair for a short adjournment since Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was to appear for the state, was not available on Wednesday.

Nair also sought permission to inspect the documents relied upon by the Bedi Commission, which was acceded to by the bench which included Justice A.S.Oka and Justice J.B. Pardiwala.

The apex court had earlier in 2012 constituted a monitoring committee under Justice H.S Bedi to oversee the investigations being conducted by the Gujarat Special Task Force into the alleged fake encounter killings.