The government filed an affidavit in this regard in court in reply to a PIL challenging the state's decision to give repeated extensions to the judicial panel comprising justices G T Nanavati and Akshay Mehta.
"If Commission believes more details and information are required to be gathered before making final report, state is not in a position to fix a definite time limit as to when the commission will submit its report," said the affidavit filed by Pankaj Dave, Under Secretary, Home Department.
In March, the term of the Commission was extended till December 31, 2012. This was the 18th extension given to the judicial body set up on March 3, 2002.
One Jignesh Goswami has filed the PIL seeking a HC direction to the Commission to submit its final report. He has argued that despite the panel conducting its inquiry for the past 10 years it has not come to any final conclusion.
"Moreover, as per information provided by the state to an RTI query, it has incurred more than Rs 6 crore on the Commission. This is wastage of tax payers' money and HC should ask Commission to come out with final report," Goswami said.
The affidavit, filed before a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala, explains the reasons for the extensions.
The Government has refuted all allegations levelled in the PIL, saying its not proper to link expenses incurred on the Commission and the time being taken by it to submits its findings. In 2008, the panel submitted one part of its findings pertaining to the Godhra train burning incident.
As per the affidavit, the panel requested for more time as it had asked the Supreme Court-appointed SIT, which investigated the riot cases and recently submitted its final report, to furnish details of its inquiry.