Retd SC Judge GT Nanavati, Who Investigated Godhra & Anti-Sikh Riots, Passes Away At 86

His commission for the 2002 Gujarat riots case had given a clean chit to Narendra Modi and his council of ministers, along with the police, BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Bajrang Dal.

File Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Girish Thakorlal Nanavati breathed his last on Saturday at the age of 86, news agency PTI reported.

 He had investigated the 1984 anti-Sikh and the 2002 Godhra riots.

The former Supreme Court judge died of a cardiac failure at 1:15 pm on Saturday in Gujarat, PTI reported family members as saying.

Born on February 17, 1935, Girish Nanavati was enrolled as an advocate in the Bombay High Court on February 11, 1958.

He became a permanent Judge of the Gujarat High Court from July 19, 1979, and was transferred to the Orissa High Court on December 14, 1993.

Nanavati was appointed as the chief justice of the Orissa High Court with effect from January 31, 1994. Then, he was transferred as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court from September 28, 1994. 

He was appointed as judge of the Supreme Court with effect from March 6, 1995, and retired on February 16, 2000.

Notably, Nanavati was tasked with probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by the NDA government. He was the sole member of the Nanavati commission.

His commission for the 2002 Gujarat riots case had given a clean chit to the then-chief minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers, along with the police, BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Bajrang Dal in its final report.

The commission was appointed in 2002 by Narendra Modi to probe the riots that took place after the burning of two coaches of the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station, in which 59 ‘karsevaks’ died.

In 2014, Justices Nanavati and Akshay Mehta had submitted their final report on the 2002 riots to the then-Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel. Over 1,000 people, mainly from the minority community, were killed in the violence.

(With Agency Inputs)