|
Relief & Rehabilitation |
|
- Report |
| |
|
Judicial Research |
- Judgments on
compensation |
-
Judgments
supporting case
for transfer |
Crime Against Humanity
|
Public Advocacy |
|
-
Making
Institutions
Accountable |
|
Summary of the CJP’s activities
between April 2002 and October 2003:
-
Relief and
Rehabilitation:
Compared to most NGOs engaged in Relief and Rehabilitation work
after the Gujarat violence, CJP’s own contribution can be said to be
quite modest: approximately Rs.11 lakhs so far. But we are happy that
because we dragged the Narendra Modi Government to the Gujarat High
Court on this issue, the Gujarat Government was compelled, as a
result of court orders, to spend at least Rs. 10 crore on
providing for food and other supplies to relief camps, something that
the Modi government was adamant it would not do.
-
Concerned Citizens
Tribunal:
CJP took the initiative in setting up a citizens’ tribunal headed
by Justice VR Krishna, (retd Supreme Court) and two other retired Judges
–one each of the Supreme Court and High Court-- to conduct an
independent probe into the violence in Godhra and the rest of Gujarat.
Their 3-volume report titled ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ continues to be
the most potent document till date on the Gujarat violence nationally
and internationally. On its release from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and
Hyderabad, the findings and recommendations of the Tribunal received
extensive print and electronic media coverage.
-
Legal Action:
-
Best Bakery Case:
If the question of Justice and Peace in the context of the
horrors of Gujarat has been brought centre-stage in the last three
months, (though several legal initiatives were taken earlier) it has
been due to the intervention of the Supreme Court of India in the
(Best Bakery Case). For this, CJP can justly claim most of the credit.
It was on the CJP’s assurance of support that Zahira Shaikh and her
family moved to Mumbai (CJP has since been looking after all their
financial and security needs) and in early July, she told a hugely
attended press conference why they were forced to lie before the court
earlier and why they wanted a retrial of the Best Bakery Case outside
Gujarat. The CJP secretary personally escorted Zahira Shaikh to Delhi
for a full-bench hearing before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
It was thereafter that the NHRC decided on its rare step of filing an
appeal in the Supreme Court endorsing Zahira’s plea for a retrial
outside Gujarat. Besides the NHRC, CJP and Zahira also filed a
separate appeal in the SC, which has now been clubbed together with
the NHRC petition. CJP’s two earlier petitions pending in the SC, on
hate speech and need for transfer of investigation of the massacres to
an independent agency are also to be heard now. The CJP has the moral
and physical responsibility of taking care of the Shaikh family.
-
Godhra Families come
to CJP:
On Dussera Day (October 5), 14 members from four Hindu
families, each of whom had lost a woman from their family in the fire
that consumed coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra last year,
addressed a press conference in Mumbai after they sought CJP’s help in
their struggle for justice for they felt totally cheated and betrayed
by the very people in Gujarat who claim to be their protectors and who
have raised huge amounts of money in their name. These Hindu families
have also filed an impleadment application before the SC pleading that
the Godhra case too must be heard outside Gujarat. Schooling and other
needs of these families are also being borne by the CJP.
-
Gulberg Society,
Chamanpura: This
was one of the worst carnages where former member of parliament, Mr
Ahsan Jaffri was brutally killed. CJP has been handing the criminal
trial from the very start and it is because of CJP’s support
that witnesses have not been cowed down, intimidated and broken. The
public prosecutor appointed for this trial by the Gujarat government
was a man charge-sheeted of burning alive nine Muslims! We are
pressing for a transfer of this case outside Gujarat, too.
-
Other Criminal
Trials: Due to
CJP’s real sincerity and success in persevering in the
struggle for justice, many eye-witnesses in cases that have either
been ruinously finished or where trial has not started are approaching
CJP for assistance. Naroda Pattiya, Kidiad, Pandharwada…
-
Compensation claim:
In response to CJP’s Public Interest Litigation in the Gujarat
High Court, the court has asked the Gujarat Government to give a full
and proper account of the Rs.150 crore that was promised from the PM’s
fund for the relief of Gujarat’s victims of violence. The Chief
Secretary of Gujarat and three other Secretaries of the Gujarat
Government have already held three meetings with the CJP Secretary
following the court’s direction. Over the past month, volunteers team
has been verifying our claims versus the Collector’s records. The
hearing is on February 16, 2004.
-
Transfer Petition(s)
Supreme Court:
Following CJP’s initiative in the BEST Bakery case and Zahira Shaikh’s
appearance before the NHRC, the NHRC also filed a Transfer Petition in
the SC praying for a transfer of 14 Major Carnage Trials out of
Gujarat. This was in keeping with the NHRC’s findings in its
pathbreaking report in 2002. The CJP has impleaded itself in this
Transfer Petition and filed, directly in the SC, affidavits of major
complainants, eyewitnesses that reveal starkly the state of subverted
investigation and trials in Gujarat. The CJP has also filed along with
Hindu victims of the S-6 coach burning and the relatives of illegal
accused, a transfer petition in the Godhra matter.
-
Hate Speech and Hate
Writing: The CJP
has filed a petition under section 153a and 153 b of the IPC against
te hate filled speeches of Gujarat CM, Mr. Narendra Modi and VHP
President. Mr. Ashok Singhal. [The former had stated in August 2002
that “Relief Camps are Baby Making Factories;” and Singhal said that
“Gujarat was a successful experiment…villages should be purged of
Islam.”
-
CJP Internships:
Due to the respect that the work CJP done has earned,
international students of law and human rights are offering themselves
for eight week internships in Mumbai and Gujarat. Another student of
the New York Law School is working with the Secretary, CJP on a
research paper regarding the ‘role of the public prosecutor in India.’
All this will feed back into the litigation process that CJP is
spearheading.
-
Team of Lawyers:
The CJP can rightfully be proud of the team of legal expertise and
acumen that it commands. From Mr Aspi Chinoi [relief camp case, 2002],
Mahesh Jethmalani [POTA case, Gujarat]
in Mumbai to Mr Shanti
Bhushan [BEST Bakery], Mr Anil Divan [CBI Inquiry plus Godhra transfer
petition] and Mr Kapil Sibal [Transfer Petitions plus Hate Speech case],
we can be truly proud of the senior counsel appearing for us pro bono.
·
CJP’s
Major Success, BEST Bakery Trial Transferred
The resoundingly clear
indictment of the Gujarat state by Justices Pasiath and Doraisamy Raju of
the SC is not simply a huge success for the efforts that CJP has put in
but it offers great succour tot he victims of Gujarat. More than anything
else, it will stand proud in the annals of the Indian Judiciary on issues
of transfer of trial when communal violence and hatred permeates every
rung of society and infects even the investigative machinery. At such
times, this Judgement tells us an area of neutrality and distance is
essential to ensure that justice is done. April 12, 2004 was a proud day
for the Indian Judiciary that did Indian Democracy proud.
It is for all this work to
be sustained, that the CJP needs to generate the expenses that it needs.
We appeal to you to support this initiative that is a unique citizens’
intervention to struggle for justice to the victims of mass crimes but in
so doing is also a valiant attempt to re-activate a stodgy legal system.
Teesta Setalvad,
Secretary.
Donations to the
Citizens for Justice and Peace [in that name] are exempt under
section 80G of the Income Tax Act
|
