NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday posed for final hearing on February 13 appeals filed by the Gujarat government and several other convicts in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.
The appeals have been filed against the Gujarat High Court order of October 2017.
While making it clear that no adjournment will be given in the matter on February 13, a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Aravind Kumar, asked the parties to translate the court records which are in Gujarati to English and digitise so that the records are accessible to all parties.
The Gujarat Government has filed separate appeals challenging the commutation of the death sentence of the accused to life imprisonment by the High Court.
The appeals have been pending since 2018.
According to the prosecution, the crime which took place on February 27, 2002, resulted in the killing of 58 persons in a fire inside the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express, which was carrying kar sevaks (Hindu volunteers) from Ayodhya.
The Godhra carnage triggered communal riots in Gujarat.
Last year, the bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud (Now Retd) rejected the bail pleas filed by three convicts of the 2002 Godhra train burning case -- Saukat Abdulla Moulvi Ismail Badam, Siddik Mohammad Mora (Moraiya) and Bilal -- keeping in view their acts and specific roles assigned to them. "The incident is serious, not isolated ones. We are at this stage not inclined to grant them bail," the CJI Chandrachud said in the order.
It is to be noted that as these three convicts death sentences had been commuted by the Gujarat High Court, so the state govt has filed separate appeals challenging the same in the top court.
The convicts had played specific role like pouring petrol and involved in other offences, the state govt claimed.
Earlier, in May 2022, the SC had granted interim bail to one convict, Abdul Rahman Dhantiya on medical grounds to attend to his wife, and mentally challenged daughters. In December 2022, it also granted bail to another convict who had spent 17 years in jail.
The February 27, 2002, train burning cases in Godhra led to communal riots in Gujarat.
A total of 31 convicts were sentenced by the trial court in 2011 — 11 were sentenced to death and 20 to life imprisonment. In 2017, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentence to life terms — all 31 got life imprisonment.