The UPA government and specially Lalu Yadav has got a slap from the Gujarat High Court on the setting of Justice Banerjee committee to look in to the cause of Godhra carnage.

However, the High Court has termed the committee as unconstitutional, illegal and void. The high court also questioned on the presentation of the report in the Parliament.

The court has said that the process of the formation of the committee is a violation of the provisions of the commission of Inquiry Act and the Indian Railways Act both.

There is already a commission (Justice Nanavati-Shah Commission) is looking into the matter and the government has set up another commission.

The Commission of Inquiry Act says that Centre or state cannot appoint another Commission when one commission is inquiring the matter.

The political temperature has gone high and the opposition parties has demanded to sack the railway minister Lalu Yadav. BJP has said that Lalu should take the moral responsibility and should quit his post immediately.

However, Congress has said to go for an appeal in the higher court and rejected the demand for Lalu’s resignation.

Earlier, the Union Cabinet on a proposal by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in September 2004 had appointed the Banerjee Inquiry Committee.

The Banerjee Committee had said about the Sabarmati express coach fire as an accident.

Neelkanth Bhatia, a survivor of train carnage, had challenged the report and the setting up another commission while one commission is already probing the matter.

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