2008 Supreme(SC) 536
P.SATHASIVAM, AFTAB ALAM, ARIJIT PASAYAT
NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – Appellant
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT – Respondent
Advocates appeared:
Harish N. Salve (Amicus Curiae), Senior Advocate [Bhargava V. Desai (Amicus Curiae), Rahul Gupta, Ms Reema Sharma, Sanjay Parekh, Indu Malhotra, Shilpa Gupta, Gopal, Umed Singh Gulia-in-person, Amit Singh Chauhan, Ejaz Maqbool, 9 Huzffa Ahmadi, Ms Apama Bhat, P. Ramesh Kumar, Anand Grover, Ms Lalit Mohini, Naveen R. Nath and Ms Shobha, Advocates] for the Petitioner;
Vikas Singh, Additional Solicitor General (Ms Sandhya Goswami and Ms Sushma Suri, Advocates) for the Union of India;
Fakhruddin and Kazi Mohd. Ali, Senior Advocates (K.N. Madhusoodhanan, R. Sathish, Mohd. Izhar Alam, Kazim Ali, M.P. Singh, Dr. Nafis A. Siddiqui, Advocates) for State of Mizoram; h Anil Shrivastav and Ritu Raj, Advocates, for State of Arunachal Pradesh;
A. Mariarputham and Ms Aruna Mathur (for MIs Arputham, Aruna & Co.), Advocates, for State of Sikkim;
Sanjay Parikh, Ms Anitha Shenoy, S. Udaya Kr. Sagar, Ms Bina Madhavan (for MIs Lawyer's Knit & Co.), Manish Kumar and Ansar Ahmad Chaudhary, Advocates, for NHRC;
Y.G. Pragasam, SJ. Aristotle, Prabu Rama Subramanian and Dr. Meera Agarwal, Advocates, for State of Tamil Nadu and UT of Pondicherry;
Arun Jaitley and Mukul Rohatgi, Senior Advocates (Ms Hemantika Wahi, Saurav Kripal, Ms Pinky, Ms Jesal, Manjit Singh and T.Y. George, Advocates) for State of Gujarat;
Kh. Nobin Singh, David Rao, Tarun Jamwal, S. Biswajit Meitei and Vijay Prakash, Advocates, for State of Manipur;
S. Wasim A. Qadri, D.S. Mahra and Ms Apama Bhat, Advocates, for NCT of Delhi and All UTs;
Atul Jha and D.K. Sinha, Advocates, for State of Chhattisgarh;
J. Anand, Additional Advocate General, K.T.S. Tulsi, Senior Advocate (Ajay Paul, Gopal Singh, Manish Kumar, Ms Sujoya Bardhan, Anand Grover, Ms Lalit Mohini Bhat, Naveen R. Nath, Nikhil Goel, Sayid Marsook Bafaki, Dr. Kailash Chand and C.D. Singh, Advocates) for State of Punjab;
Riku Sarma (for M/s Corporate Law Group), Tara Chandra Sharma, Ms Neelam Sharma, K.R. Sasiprabhu, J.S. Attri, Bimal Roy Jad, Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, Radha Shyam Jena, Gopal Prasad, R.K. Adsure, Ranjan Mukherjee, Sanjay R. Hegde, Amit Kr. Chawla, Arul Varma, Vikrant Yadav, P. Parameswaran, A.D.N. Rao, Sameer Parekh (for MIs P.H. Parekh & Co.), S.N. Bhat, Sanjay Jain, Rashmikumar Manilal Vithlani, R. Satish and P.Y. Dinesh, Advocates, for State of Assam.
ORDER
1. After having heard the learned counsel for the parties, we feel that considering the sensitive nature of the cases involved, appointment of a Special Investigation Team (in short "SIT") is warranted.
2. Communal harmony is the hallmark of a democracy. No religion teaches hatred. If in the name of religion, people are killed, that is essentially a slur and blot on the society governed by rule of law. The Constitution of India, in its Preamble refers to secularism. Religious fanatics really do not belong to any religion. They are no better than terrorists who kill innocent people for no rhyme or reason in a society which as noted above is governed by rule of law.
3. There are cases where there is an element of communal disharmony, which is not to be countenanced. The State of Gujarat has stated that it has no objection if further investigation is done so that peoples faith in the transparency of action taken by the State is fortified.
4. Mr Mukul Rohatgi, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the State stated that the States approach is fair and it is not interested in shielding any culprit or a guilty person, but on the other hand, would like all those who are guilty, to be pun
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