By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday constituted a 25-member committee, headed by Retd. Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna, to recommend suggestions to the state government to prevent recurrence of terror attacks and to instill confidence among citizens regarding their security.
The order was passed by a division bench of Bombay High Court comprising Chief justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S A Bobde after hearing six petitions of public interest litigations on Friday. The same bench had heard two related PILs on Thursday.
The judges observed that since the government did not act with the required urgency to assure citizens’ security while providing protection to their life was its responsibility, it was imperative to appoint the committee.
“Public confidence in state administrations is the essence of a democracy. Proper governance includes security of citizens and property,” the judges said.
The committee will comprise chief secretary of the state, director general of police, finance and home secretaries and eminent citizens from various fields. Some of those to be named include Krishna Kumar of the Indian Hotels Company, Sheriff Indu Shahani, HDFC Bank chairman Deepak Parekh , security expert Raghu Raman, information technology security expert Vijay Mukhi, the regional director of the Kalina Forensic Laboratory and a state government advocate to be named by Advocate General Ravi Kadam.
The court-appointed committee will have its office in the state secretariat from where it will operate. It will start holding its meeting from December 26. The committee will submit its report to the High Court before the next hearing scheduled after six weeks. The court will forward its recommendations to the government, and the latter will have to respond in two weeks.
The judges, however, made it clear that the committee would not interfere with police investigations into the attacks or the government’s decision-making process and that its recommendations would be in form of suggestions. But the court also said that the state will have to act on those recommendations by either taking steps to implement them in two weeks or reject them with reasoning.
The advocate general opposed the contemplation of the petitioners especially Iqbal Chhagla, following the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF), in which a demand of forming a committee and setting up a Quick Response Team (QRT) was made and said that the state had already formed a committee with six representatives of the public including the leader of the Opposition.
But the court observed that the National Security Council of the state formed on December 2, had not even met once in 17 days.
The HC expressed its anxiety over the contradicting news about Mumbai terror attack. And therefore it made clear that only one person from the committee would be authorized to give information about the ongoing 26/11 investigations to avoid conflicting stories appearing in the media.