Gujarat riots: Order on Zakia Jafri's petition likely today

October 28, 2013

Ahmedabad, Oct 28: A local court is likely to pronounce its order on Monday on Zakia Jafri's petition against closure report of Supreme Court-appointed SIT, giving clean chit to chief minister Narendra Modi and others regarding their role in the 2002 riots.

Arguments on Jafri's petition by her lawyers and the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) counsel had continued for five months in the court of metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra, following which Jafri's lawyer handed over written submissions to the court on September 18. On September 30, SIT filed its written submissions and magistrate Ganatra said he would pronounce the order on October 28.

Jafri, whose husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was among the 69 people killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre during the 2002 riots, had filed a petition objecting to the SIT's closure report absolving Modi of any conspiracy.

After completing its investigation into Jafri's complaint, SIT on February 8, 2012, had filed the probe report concluding that despite difficulties in obtaining evidence in the case because of the lapse of eight years, whatever material it could gather was not sufficient to prosecute those against whom allegations of conspiracy for 2002 riots had been levelled.

Protesting SIT's report, Jafri, on April 15 this year, filed a petition demanding rejection of the report as well as an order from the court to file chargesheet against Modi and others.

While defending its report and demanding the rejection of Jafri's petition, SIT counsel R S Jamuar had submitted that no direct or circumstantial evidence has been found during its investigation which can prima facie support Jafri's allegations.

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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