New Delhi, March 15
Supreme Court today agreed to consider a petition that has challenged the validity of its order, which has resulted in the summoning of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for questioning by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2002 riots.

A three-member Bench, headed by Justice DK Jain, posted the plea for hearing in the first half of next month after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for BJP MLA Kalubhai Malidwad, contended that the court had erred in issuing the April 27, 2009, order for involving the SIT without seeking the response from the 63 accused, including Modi.

The impugned order was passed by another Bench of the apex court headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, who has since retired and is now heading the Appellate Tribunal of the Competition Commission. It was issued on a petition filed by Zakia Jaffry, wife of Congress leader Ehsaan Jafri, who was killed in the riots at the Gulbarga society in Ahmedabad. Zakia had contended that Modi, some of his Cabinet colleagues and top officials were part of the larger conspiracy behind the riots.

Jethmalani sought the recall of the order, arguing that his client, who was one of the accused in Zakia’s petition, had also been summoned by the SIT. However, the “real target” was not his client, but accused number one (Modi). SIT has asked Modi to appear before it on March 21.

Today, the Bench “deferred” the trial in the riots case relating to the Gulbarga Society handled by Special Public Prosecutor RK Shah, who recently resigned accusing SIT, headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan, and trial judge BU Joshi. According to Shah, SIT was not cooperating with him and the trial judge was hostile and unsympathetic towards witnesses.