supreme hearing on godhra incident will be held on february 13

The Supreme Court said it will hear on February 13 the appeal filed by the Gujarat government and several other convicts in the 2002 Godhra train fire case. A bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Arvind Kumar made it clear that no adjournment will be given in the case on the next date of hearing. On 27 February 2002, 59 people were killed when S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt in Godhra, Gujarat, leading to riots in the state.

Multiple appeals have been filed in the apex court challenging the October 2017 verdict of the Gujarat High Court, which had upheld the convictions of several convicts and commuted the death sentences of 11 people to life imprisonment.

When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, the lawyer appearing for one of the convicts said no evidence had been placed on record. Justice Maheshwari said that we do not know. We will hear the matter and we had already made it clear. We will not postpone this matter. The case has been adjourned at least five times. (For the last one year, I have been adjourning the case. The lawyer told the court that some of the convicts have filed mercy petitions which are pending. Refusing to adjourn the case, the bench said that we have the Chief Justice’s There are instructions from the office that there is no need to hear criminal appeal and pardon cases together.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for one of the convicts, said the appeal filed by Gujarat against commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment is to be heard first. Twenty-two years have passed. My clients have not been given the death penalty. This bench will first have to confirm the offence. Once this is confirmed, then comes the punishment part.