The Supreme Court on Monday appointed P R Vakil as the new public prosecutor in the Best Bakery case.

It also appointed Manjula Rao as the associate public prosecutor to assist Vakil.

This order sets aside Atul Mehta's appointment by the Gujarat government as the public prosecutor.

The court directed the Gujarat government to issue a notification appointing Vakil and Rao.

The apex court had on April 12, 2004, transferred the trial from Gujarat to Maharashtra on the allegation of the victims that the police was hand in glove with the accused and that they were being intimidated.

On Monday the court noted that in the April 12 order, it had directed the accused to surrender before the trial court in Mumbai.

It found that 14 of the accused had been arrested and seven were yet to present themselves before the court.

Taking note of this lapse, the court issued contempt notices to the seven accused and directed the Gujarat government to notify this order in a Gujarati daily.

It also asked the Gujarat government to file an affidavit within four weeks stating the steps taken by it to take action against those who had threatened the witnesses before the trial was shifted to Maharashtra.