Former Chief Justice of India and former Chairman of NHRC J S Varma caused some embarrassment P C Pandey, Additional Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, when he asked Pandey to go by his conscience while dealing with the Gujarat riot cases.

"When I visited Gujarat during my tenure as NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) chairman, I talked to Pandey privately. He shared some information with me," Varma said, while delivering the fifth D P Kohli Memorial Lecture in New Delhi. Pandey was the police commissioner of Ahmedabad when riots rocked the city and other parts of Gujarat, soon after Muslims torched a railway car full of Hindus in Godhra.

The former Chief Justice of India said he wanted to convey to Pandey that he (Pandey) could act now, given that he was not longer under the kind of pressure he faced while he worked in the Gujarat police.

The Supreme Court last month had issued notices to the Centre and CBI on a public interest litigation challenging Pandey's appointment as additional director of the premier investigating agency. The PIL asserted that he should not have been given such a sensitive post, given his alleged inaction as Ahmedabad Police Commissioner during the riots last year.