The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to April 14 the hearing of the petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit given to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the matter on a request by a counsel appearing for Zakia. This prompted senior advocate Maninder Siingh, appearing for the Gujarat government, to urge the court to record in the order that the adjournment was being granted on the request of the petitioner’s counsel, as is the custom.
“We cannot keep adjourning the matter like this every time. We have to hear it someday,” Justice Khanwilkar, heading the bench, said.
Earlier too, on November 19, 2019, the matter had been adjourned on a similar plea.
More than 1,000 people had been killed in the 2002 Gulburg Housing Society riots in Ahmedabad, including Ahsan.