The Allahabad High Court Tuesday granted two weeks time to the Uttar Pradesh government to submit its response on a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction for a CBI inquiry into all the major riots, which took place in the state after Samajwadi Party, came to power.
The Lucknow bench of justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and justice Anil Kumar Tripathi II passed the order after additional advocate general Bulbul Godiyal, appearing on behalf of the UP government, sought two weeks time to seek instructions and file response.
On September 11, a local social activist Nutan Thakur had filed a PIL seeking direction for a Central Board of Investigation inquiry into all the major riots which took place after the formation of SP government in UP on March 15 last year.
In the PIL, it has been alleged that the action and policy of the current government and its officials had been such that it showed a definite tilt towards a particular sect.
The PIL alleged that in all the riots that took place in last 18 months, the administration “shied away from taking action against culprits of that particular sect”. The PIL also stated that this has resulted in a sense of mistrust in members of the other community, including the petitioner.
Thakur, while narrating various communal riots beginning from Mathura on June 1 last year, said there had been “partisan and ineffective action” in them.
Thakur appealed for effective and unbiased CBI inquiry in each of these major riots just like Gujarat riots. The petitioner also prayed that the ambit of justice Sahai commission constituted by the state government to probe into Muzaffarnagar clashes should be expanded to all major riots during this period.