NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday scheduled the hearing for the criminal appeals from the 2002 Godhra train burning case for the third week of January 2025.
The appeals were filed by the convicts challenging the verdicts of both the Trial Court and the Gujarat High Court that found them guilty.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice J.K. Maheshwari and including Justice Rajesh Bindal, was hearing the criminal appeals from the convicts of the 2002 Godhra train burning case.
While posting the matters to be taken up for hearing on January third week of 2025, the top court made it clear that there won't be any further adjournments given to any party in the case.
It is to be noted that the Gujarat Government has also filed some separate appeals challenging the commutation of the sentence of the accused from the death penalty to the life sentence by the state 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 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. 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, the state government 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 government 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.