The petition stated that the Gujarat state affidavit, which made reference to certain portions of the SIT report which cast aspersions on Ms Teesta Setalvad and Advocate Mr. Tirmizi on the grounds of directing certain witnesses, should be expunged. Since the matter is reserved for orders, the petition observed that it attempted to take attention away from the main thrust of the matter of providing justice to victims of a violent carnage and also due to the fact that it appears that the quotation from the report is totally out of context with malafide intentions to diminish the efforts made by members of the civil society. Further, the petition said that an opportunity to respond to the maliciously selective leaks being flashed in the media of the SIT report could be one recourse by the court.
That while making the suggestions below as directed by this Hon’ble Court, Citizens of Justice and Peace would like to reiterate that given the malafide actions mentioned above, the pressures on the conduct of the criminal trials are likely to remain given the state of Gujarat’s hostile and unreasonable attitude. Transfer of these trials remains the best remedy under the circumstances. Hence if the NHRC petition for transfer out of the State of Gujarat is not granted, Special steps including Day to Day Observation by independent Observers in each of the trials appointed directly by the Supreme Court, would be required to ensure that the trials having reached this stage are not subverted.
Further suggestions in the petition were made with specific reference to Designated Courts, Prosecutors, Victim Protection, Monitoring the trials and Recording of Evidence.
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