The notices are returnable on March 2. The development will give Kodnani a chance to complete the ongoing Assembly session which concludes on February 28.

The notices were issued on a petition by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Naroda Patiya and the Naroda Gam riots cases. These are among the 10 most heinous riot cases being probed by the SIT at the behest of the Supreme Court.

In the petition filed by special public prosecutor J M Panchal the SIT submitted that the minister as well as the VHP leader had led the mobs to attack Muslims in the two areas during the riots. It pleaded that the act was heinous and amounted to a serious criminal offence. As such, the anticipatory bails of the accused should be cancelled.

Kodnani has been accused in both offences, while Patel has been accused in the Naroda Gam case only.

Describing the anticipatory bail given by Ahmedabad Additional Sessions judge as “illegal, arbitrary, not proper in the eye of law and contrary to the facts on record of the case,’’ the SIT petition said that Kodnani, then an MLA in February 2002, had not only been seen distributing swords and instigating the mob to attack Muslims, but had also fired from her pistol.

The official death toll in Naroda Patiya was 95, while 11 deaths were reported from Naroda Gam.

Earlier on February 20, Justice Anant S Dave had refused to hear the case, saying “not before me”.

The duo was declared absconders by the SIT on February 2 after they failed to appear before the investigating agency on January 29 and 31, despite summons issued to them.

The Ahmedabad City Sessions Court on February 5, however, granted them anticipatory bail on the condition that they would not flee the country and would also not enter the Naroda area where the two mass-massacres had taken place.

The applications from the victims’ relatives — Nannumiyan Malek, Dilavar Umrav Saiyed and Imtiyaz Ahmed Qureshi — beseeching that they be allowed as party in the bail cancellation application of the SIT, however, could not be heard as the three petitions could not be placed before the court today.