The Gujarat High Court on Friday appointed senior advocate Yogesh Lakhani as amicus curiae for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the Ishrat Jahan alleged staged shoot-out case.
A division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari also directed the SIT to respect the spirit of its order and conduct itself in a manner behoving their position.
SIT chairman Karnail Singh had earlier moved an application seeking appointment of amicus curiae for the SIT to deal with any legal complications that may come up during the investigation.
Then the court said it would have to work out a model for the SIT to see that "sanctity and spirit of its order is not paralysed due to difference of opinions amongst its members". The court had earlier constituted the three-member team to probe the case.
Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan and three of her companions were killed by a Gujarat Police team in a shootout June 15, 2004, and termed them as members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.