The Gujarat government on Monday pressed for death penalty to 11 convicts in the 2002 case of the burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station, whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the state high court.
Even as the Gujarat government insisted on restoration of death sentence to 11 convicts, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice P S Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala posted for hearing after three-weeks the bail pleas of several convicts in the case.
The court asked advocates of both the sides to file a consolidated chart giving details of each convict including actual sentences awarded to them, the period spent in jail till now and their age.
“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,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, told the Bench.
“It is consistent everywhere that the bogey was locked from outside. Fifty-nine people died, including women and children,” he added.
Giving details, the Solicitor General said 11 convicts were sentenced to death by the trial court and 20 others awarded life term.
The high court upheld total 31 convictions in the case and commuted the death penalties of the 11 convicts to life term, Mehta said.
On February 27, 2002, 59 people were killed when the S-6 coach of the train was burnt at Gujarat’s Godhra, triggering riots in the state.
The state government has come in appeal against the commutation of death penalty into life term for 11 convicts, Mehta said. Several accused, he added, had filed pleas against the high court upholding their convictions in the case.
The bench noted that a large number of bail applications have been filed before it in the case and said, “It has been agreed that the AORs (advocates-on record) on behalf of applicants along with advocate Swati Ghildiyal, standing counsel for Gujarat, shall prepare a comprehensive chart with all relevant details. List after three weeks.”