The Supreme Court will consider a Gujarat government appeal challenging a state high court order directing it to aid the repair and rebuilding of religious shrines damaged in the 2002 communal riots.

The Narendra Modi government found exception with the high court accusing it of inaction and negligence. Adherence to the high court order by doling out compensation,the state argued in the apex court,would amount to a violation of the constitutional principle that a secular state should not be seen to favour any particular religion.

A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra recently sought the entire gamut of records which the high court based its conclusions on in an order dated February 8,2012. The Bench wants the documents by July 9. Is there a basis for grant of compensation? the court asked.

The apex court sought replies from a voluntary organisation,Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat,which had filed a public interest litigation in the high court in 2003 with details of damage to 271 religious structures in 26 districts during the post-Godhra riots. The high court order had asked principal district judges in 26 districts to entertain applications seeking compensation for repair and reconstruction of religious structures.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala had ordered the compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state,reasoning that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments,it should also pay compensation for religious structures.