The hearing was deferred till March 18 by a division bench comprising Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Akil Kureshi, following a plea made by advocate Y F Mehta (representing respondent Neelkanth Bhatia) seeking more time to submit his replies.

Justice Banerjee Committee was set up by the Railway Ministry to look into certain aspects of the incident on the S-6 coach of Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27, 2002.

In its preliminary report on January 17, 2005, the committee had stated that there was no indication of any conspiracy in the case and that the coach was not torched from outside, as claimed by the police. However, Neelkanth Bhatia, a relative of one of the deceased, moved the Gujarat High Court, seeking nullification of the report, as the Nanavati commission was already inquiring into the episode.

Subsequently, a single judge bench of the high court said in its order that the appointment of Banerjee Committee was “illegal, null and void’’ because Nanavati commission was already on the job.

Criticising the Banerjee committee for making its report public without the court’s permission, the high court stayed the placing of the report in the parliament.

The Centre, however, filed a petition in the high court, challenging the order of the single judge bench. As the matter was pending, the Central government recently moved the Supreme Court and the latter asked the Gujarat High Court to dispose of the petition within six weeks.