The Gujarat High Court, in the present case, commuted the death penalty of 11 convicts into life imprisonment and did not award the death penalty.The trial court had awarded the death penalty in this case, Justice Maheshwari said, adding the rule and the apex court judgement did not bar hearing of the appeals in the present case by a two-judge bench.”The objection is repelled,” the bench said and commenced the final hearing in the case.Earlier on April 24, the top court said it will commence final hearing on May 6 and 7 on the appeals filed by the Gujarat government and several other convicts in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.On February 27, 2002, 59 people were killed when the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Gujarat’s Godhra, triggering riots in the state.Several appeals have been filed in the apex court challenging the October 2017 verdict of the Gujarat High Court which had upheld the conviction of several convicts and commuted the death penalties of 11 people to life term.The high court had upheld the 31 convictions in the case and commuted the death penalties of the 11 convicts to life term, the counsel had said.While the state has appealed against the commutation of death penalty to life term for the 11 convicts, several convicts have challenged the high court’s verdict upholding their convictions in the cas
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