{"id":326,"date":"2004-06-08T21:31:57","date_gmt":"2004-06-09T01:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/2004\/06\/08\/best-bakery-trial-adjourned-public-p"},"modified":"2004-06-08T21:31:57","modified_gmt":"2004-06-09T01:31:57","slug":"best-bakery-trial-adjourned-public-prosecutor-not-chosen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/2004\/06\/08\/best-bakery-trial-adjourned-public-prosecutor-not-chosen\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Bakery Trial Adjourned–Public Prosecutor Not Chosen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Best Bakery trial began<\/A><\/FONT> on June 7 in Maharashtra, but was adjourned until June 21 because of controversy over the appointment of the public prosecutor.<\/FONT><\/P>
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Previously, the advocate representing Zahira Sheikh had requested<\/A><\/FONT> the Maharashtra government to appoint the public prosecutor and news reports indicated<\/A><\/FONT> that the petitioners were being consulted.  The Maharashtra Law Minister, however, had said the Gujarat government should appoint the prosecutor.<\/FONT><\/P>
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Today, the confusion over the appointment of the prosecutor delayed the trial:<\/FONT><\/P>
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The SC had directed the state government to consult victims and witnesses before appointing a new public prosecutor for the retrial. It said: ‘‘We direct the state government to appoint another public prosecutor…’’ <\/EM><\/FONT><\/P>
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Interpreting the SC directive in their own way, both Maharashtra (represented by Rohini Salian) and Gujarat governments sought time to make the appointment. <\/EM><\/FONT><\/P>
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Judge Thipsay reserved his opinion on the issue, asking the governments to reach a consensus in two weeks. <\/EM><\/FONT><\/P>
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Later in the evening, Gujarat law secretary Bela Trivedi announced that Atul Mehta of Vadodara sessions court and T S Nanavati would conduct the Best Bakery retrial. ‘‘While Mehta is the senior public prosecutor, Nanavati will assist him.’’<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Zahira’s advocate stressed again that the Maharasthra government should appoint the prosecutor: “In Gujarat, the Supreme Court had said the prosecution was done badly; and the prosecution is an arm of the government.”<\/FONT><\/P>
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Another Best Bakery accused<\/A><\/FONT> was detained yesterday, bringing the total accused in jail to five.  One is out on bail, and the remaining 15 have not been found.<\/FONT><\/P>
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H.U. Mahida, the judge who acquitted the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case, had recently been appointed<\/A><\/FONT> by the Modi governemnt for the Gujarat Electricity Board.  Today, he turned down<\/A><\/FONT> his appointment:<\/FONT><\/P>
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Mahida’s appointment had created a controversy, with a Gujarat High Court lawyer raising objections to the high monetary benefits in the terms and conditions of the contract signed between Mahida and the GEB.<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Best Bakery trial began on June 7 in Maharashtra, but was adjourned until June 21 because of controversy over the appointment of the public prosecutor. Previously, the advocate representing Zahira Sheikh had requested the Maharashtra government to appoint the public prosecutor and news reports indicated that the petitioners were being consulted.  The Maharashtra Law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}