The Supreme Court granted bail to eight individuals convicted in the 2002 Godhra massacre, while refusing to provide any relief to four individuals on death row.
The bench comprised of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha and granted bail to the eight convicts subject to the Sessions Court’s conditions.
Earlier this year on February 20, the Court had sought information about the convicts, including their age and time served in prison, to decide their bail applications.
The Gujarat government, represented by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, opposed the Gujarat High Court’s 2017 decision to commute the death sentences of eleven convicts to life imprisonment. Mehta informed the Court that the trial court had sentenced twenty convicts to life imprisonment and eleven to death.
Sanjay Hegde, a senior advocate, informed the Court that some of the inmates were in their sixties, and deferred the decision on upholding the death penalty against the eleven defendants who were sentenced to death by the trial court.
Senior Counsel KTS Tulsi informed the Court that one of the defendants, Bilal Ismail, did not understand Gujarati when he signed a document without comprehending its contents.
In 2012, the Supreme Court had granted bail to one of the thirty-one convicted in the Godhra train blaze of February 2002, which triggered communal riots in Gujarat resulting in the death of around 2,000 people.
