In a relief to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court today refused to pass any order on his alleged inaction to contain the 2002 Gujarat riots after the Godhra carnage and referred the matter to the concerned magistrate in Ahmedabad for a decision.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice D K Jain directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the riot cases, to submit its final report before the magistrate. The apex court asked this lower court to decide whether to proceed against Modi and 63 others, among whom are senior government officials.

The bench made it clear there was no need for it to further monitor the riot cases.

The bench, also comprising justices P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, said in case the magistrate decides to drop proceedings against Modi and others, he has to hear the plea of slain MP Ehsan Jafri's widow Zakia Jafri, who had filed a complaint against the Gujarat chief minister.

The court passed the order on a petition by Zakia Jafri alleging Modi and 62 top government officials deliberately refused to take action to contain the state-wide riots, triggered by the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage.

Jafri, who lost her husband Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP in the Gulbarga Housing Society massacre, had told the apex court a proper probe should be carried out by the SIT, headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan, into her allegations of inaction and various acts of omission and commission by Modi and others after the riots.

Zakia said she was disappointed by the Supreme Court's ruling, as she has been "waiting for justice for nine years". She said she had pinned her hopes on the apex court ruling in her favour.

The apex court had earlier handed over the task of probing the case to SIT which submitted its report in the court.

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