Supreme Court Rules on Godhra Train Burning Case Appeals

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea that appeals in the 2002 Godhra train case should be heard by a three-judge bench due to the capital punishment involved. A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar stated that the two-judge bench was appropriate since the Gujarat High Court had commuted death penalties to life imprisonment.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing two convicts, argued for a three-judge bench based on a previous Supreme Court judgment. However, the bench noted that the decision to commute punishments eliminated the automatic requirement for a three-judge panel.

The case originates from the 2002 incident where 59 people were killed in the train burning event, causing riots in Gujarat. Several appeals were filed against the Gujarat High Court's 2017 verdict, which upheld numerous convictions while commuting death sentences for 11 convicts to life terms.

(With inputs from agencies.)