Gujarat Riots - Mere Failure Or Inaction Of State Administration No Basis To Infer Conspiracy : Supreme Court In Zakia Jafri's Plea

Dismissing the appeal filed by Zakia Jafri challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to Narendra Modi and 63 other state functionaries in the Gujarat riots case, the Supreme Court observed that conspiracy cannot be inferred on the basis of mere failure or inaction of the state administration."Conspiracy cannot be readily inferred merely on the basis of the inaction or failure of the State administration", the Court stated. It added that "inaction or failure of some officials of one section of the State administration cannot be the basis to infer a pre- planned criminal conspiracy by the authorities of the State Government or to term it as a State sponsored crime (violence) against the minority community".The Court observed that the Special Investigation Team had noted that inaction and negligence of the erring officials has been taken note of at the appropriate level including by initiating departmental action against them."Such inaction or negligence cannot pass the muster of hatching of a criminal conspiracy, for which the degree of participation in the planning of commission of an offence of this magnitude must come to the fore in some way. The SIT was not there to enquire into the failures of the State administration, but the remit given to it by this Court was to enquire into the allegations of larger criminal conspiracy (at the highest level)", the judgment delivered by a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.The bench was addresing the arguments raised by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for Jafri that there was failure of the state administration and police machinery in taking appropirate action to control the rioters and that the intelligence inputs regarding communal build-up were ignored.The bench observed that "to make out a case of larger criminal conspiracy, it is essential to establish a link indicative of meeting of minds of the concerned persons for commission of the crime(s), committed during the relevant period across the State". It added that "no such link is forthcoming, much less had been unraveled and established in any of the nine (9) cases investigated by the same SIT under the directions of this Court".The bench reiterated that the inaction or lack of effective measures taken by the concerned officials per se does not imply criminal conspiracy on the part of the State authorities. The failure to act upon messages of intelligence agencies "cannot be regarded as act of criminal conspiracy unless there is material to provide link regarding the meeting of minds and deliberate act to effectuate a plan to spread mass violence across the State".The Court said that the events after the Godhra train carnage took place in "quick succession" and that on the very next day, February 28, 2002, additional support of Army had been called for and curfew was imposed in distrubed areas. The Court added that the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi had given repeated pulblic assurances that guilty will be punished."In light of such timely corrective measures taken by the State Government in right earnest and repeated public assurances given by the then Chief Minister that guilty will be punished for their crime(s), and to maintain peace, it would be beyond comprehension of any person of ordinary prudence to bear suspicion about the meeting of minds of named offenders and hatching of conspiracy by the State at the highest level, as alleged, much less grave or strong suspicion as being the quintessence for sending the accused for trial for an offence of criminal conspiracy", the judgment stated."The protagonists of quest for justice sitting in a comfortable environment in their air-conditioned office may succeed in connecting failures of the State administration at different levels during such horrendous situation, little knowing or even referring to the ground realities and the continual effort put in by the duty holders in controlling the spontaneous evolving situation unfolding aftermath mass violence across the State", the judgment further said.Misgovernence for a brief period may not be a case of breakdown of constitutional machineryThe Court said that collapsing of state administration in times of emergency is not an unknown phenomenon and cited the examples of governments with the best of the facilities crumbling under pressure during COVID pandemic."Can it be said to be a case of hatching of criminal conspiracy?", the Court asked."Breakdown of law-and-order situation if for short duration,cannot partake the colour of breakdown of rule of law or constitutional crisis. To put it differently, misgovernance or failure to maintain law-and-order during a brief period may not be a case of failure of constitutional machinery in the context of tenets embodied in Article 356 of the Constitution. There must be credible evidence regarding State sponsored breakdown of law-and-order situation; not spontaneous or isolated instances or events of failure of State administration to ...

Gujarat Riots - Mere Failure Or Inaction Of State Administration No Basis To Infer Conspiracy : Supreme Court In Zakia Jafri's Plea

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