AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government's reported move to appeal the Best Bakery judgement is a clever ploy to not only upstage the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) but also to buy time, say legal experts.

"If an appeal is filed in the Gujarat High Court, the Modi government would be able to answer the NHRC petition (in the Supreme Court). The government would then state that there is no need to transfer the case to the apex court as the High Court is going to take it up," said leading rights activist and senior advocate Girish Patel.

"Appealing to the Gujarat High Court makes sense for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the ensuing legal implication will only delay the outcome. Of course, the Supreme Court may overrule the option the state government chooses," Patel said.

By challenging the ruling of the Vadodara fast track court that set free the accused of the Best Bakery massacre - in which all 21 accused were acquitted - the government would succeed in deflecting some of the criticism against it.



The underlying argument of any appeal would be that the NHRC acted in haste and preempted the state government.



Said advocate Mukul Sinha: "The state government is definitely trying to upstage the NHRC by appealing against the judgement. However, it may not be able to do so considering the wider powers of the Supreme Court in matters pertaining to transfer of cases," he added.



But the move to approach the Gujarat High Court is not without problems for the state government. It would have to state that the controversial verdict is wrong - a paradoxical stance for the BJP government.



The NHRC had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court last Thursday seeking transfer of the five most crucial cases of communal violence to a court outside the state.



It sought the transfer on the ground that the witnesses were afraid to speak the truth, as had been publicly stated by witnesses in the Best Bakery case.



Sinha said there were no legal complications in transferring the other four cases – other than the Best Bakery case – in which the trial was still on.



The state government has an option to file an appeal against the controversial verdict within three months.



In the face of increasing criticism, Minister of State for Home Amit Shah had defended the government saying that it was evaluating options and would decide within three months.



Chief Minister Narendra Modi had told television channels on Saturday that the state government was considering the option of filing of an appeal in the Gujarat High Court.



"We still have 30 days to decide (and act)... The advocate general is looking into the matter," Modi told reporters in Tamil Nadu where he was participating in an event organised by his BJP.



Earlier, Shah and Ashok Bhatt, the state law minister, had met Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi Friday to discuss the options.



Indications are that the witnesses may not like a retrial within the state as the proposed move from the state government would imply.



Zahira Shaikh, the key witness and daughter of the bakery owner, had made it abundantly clear that a fair trial without any pressure would be possible only outside the state.



Fourteen people were killed in Best Bakery during last year's Gujarat riots. A fast-track court in Vadodara had acquitted all the accused on June 27 this year.



The key witnesses, who had turned hostile, later said before the media that they were forced to retract their statements because their lives were threatened.