Justice On Fire: Supreme Court To Hear Gujarat Government And Convicts' Pleas In Godhra Train Burning Case

Several convicts serving life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train burning case will have their bail pleas heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and two other justices will hear bail applications and a batch of appeals by convicted individuals contesting their convictions.

The court announced on 24 March it would handle bail applications for convicts at the next hearing. The Gujarat government's lawyer, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, needs to check some facts about certain convicts based on his submissions.

The highest court allowed bail extension for a convict due to his wife suffering from cancer. Mehta backed the decision, considering the medical reasons.

The state government informed the top court on 20 February that it would pursue the death penalty for 11 convicts whose life sentences in the Godhra train burning case were commuted by the Gujarat High Court.

“We will be seriously pressing for award of death penalty to the convicts whose death penalties were commuted into life imprisonment (by the Gujarat High Court). This is the rarest of rare cases where 59 people, including women and children, were burnt alive,” the solicitor general had said.

“It is consistent everywhere that the bogie (coach) was locked from outside. Fifty-nine died, including ladies and children,” he had added.

The law officer disclosed that 11 convicts received the death penalty and 20 others were given life imprisonment in the case during a court proceeding.

The high court upheld 31 convictions, commuting 11 death penalties to life term, according to Mehta.

The Godhra train burning on 27 February 2002 caused 59 casualties and led to riots in Gujarat. S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt at Gujarat’s Godhra.

The state government has come in appeal against the commutation of death penalty into life term for 11 convicts, Mehta had said. Several accused, he added, have filed pleas against the high court upholding their convictions in the case.

Two convicts in the case have been granted bail by the top court while seven other bail pleas remain pending.

Several bail applications have been submitted to the bench in question in relation to the case, resulting in the bench expressing its agreement that a comprehensive chart containing all relevant details be prepared.

Advocates-on-record representing the applicants, together with Swati Ghildiyal, the standing counsel for Gujarat, are tasked with creating the chart, and the case will be listed after three weeks.

Earlier, on 30 January, the Supreme Court had requested the Gujarat government's response regarding the petitions for bail by certain convicts who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in this case.

Among others, Abdul Raheman Dhantia alias Kankatto and Abdul Sattar Ibrahim Gaddi Asla have filed bail pleas, and the state government has been issued a notice by the court regarding these pleas.

The state government disagreed and claimed that the case was not just about stone pelting. They argued that the convicts had locked a coach of the Sabarmati Express which caused deaths of multiple passengers.

Last year, on 15 December, Faruk, who had been imprisoned for 17 years on a life sentence, was granted bail by the top court.

Faruk, along with several others, was convicted for pelting stones at a coach of the train.