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Viraj Tra Desai vs. State of Gujarat & Ors.

SLP(C) · 2022 INSC 882Decided 30 Aug 2022
SLP(C) No. 7951 of 2002
Uday Umesh Lalit · S. Ravindra Bhat · J.B. Pardiwala

Background

This 2002 petition originally sought transfer of investigation into a Gujarat-riots-related matter to the CBI, after the Gujarat High Court declined such transfer. Around the same time, the National Human Rights Commission had also approached the Supreme Court, leading the Court to earlier direct constitution of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate and prosecute nine major riot-related trials across the state. Over the following two decades, several connected petitions (transfer petitions, writ petitions, and an SLP) accumulated around this core matter and were listed together.

Decision Breakdown

By 2022, counsel informed the Court that eight of the nine major trials entrusted to the SIT had already concluded at the trial stage and were pending only in appeal, while only the trial relating to the Naroda Gaam incident remained pending (at the stage of final arguments). Counsel for the petitioners in the connected matters conceded that their petitions had become infructuous, except for one request: restoration of protection for activist Teesta Setalvad, who was named in the case. The Court held that it need not entertain the petitions further and disposed of them all as having become infructuous, while directing that the Naroda Gaam trial be taken to its logical conclusion and that the SIT remains empowered to take appropriate steps. On the protection issue, the Court gave Ms. Setalvad liberty to make an appropriate application before the concerned authorities, to be dealt with in accordance with law.

Lesson Learnt

Long-pending litigation can become "infructuous" (pointless to continue) once the underlying grievance is overtaken by events: here, most trials the petition was designed to safeguard had already run their course. Courts will still preserve accountability mechanisms (like the SIT) for genuinely pending matters even while closing the broader litigation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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