2/15/2017 ManyfactsaboutGodsetrialnotknowntoworld|TheIndianExpress

Home Cities Mumbai Many facts about Godse trial not known toworld

Many facts about Godse trial

not known toworld
Lawyer who revisited trial records says kin kept godse in the dark about
appeals

1 114 Google+ 1

Mumbai | Updated: February 11, 2014 1:55 pm

Legal historian Rajan Jayakar

After Nathuram Godse was sentenced to death for the assassination of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, Godses family members had appealed before the privy
council in London and had also sought mercy from the then governor-general.

This is among the lesser-known facts related to Godses trial for Gandhis murder,
said lawyer Rajan Jayakar, who studied the original records of the trial while
curating an exhibition to mark the Supreme Court of Indias golden jubilee in 2000.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/manyfactsaboutgodsetrialnotknowntoworld/ 1/9
2/15/2017 ManyfactsaboutGodsetrialnotknowntoworld|TheIndianExpress

I had written to the then Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to
send the papers to Delhi. The voluminous record arrived in seven-eight wooden
boxes, said Jayakar.

Now, 66 years after the assassination of Gandhi on January 30, 1948, Jayakar, a
conservationist of legal heritage based in Mumbai, said there were a number of
aspects of the trial that remain lesser known.

Godse had himself never sought clemency but members of his family had probably
kept him in the dark about their subsequent appeals for mercy, said Jayakar. The
P&H High Court had, on June 21, 1949, confirmed Godses death sentence in a 315-
page judgment.

Jayakar explained, The privy council was part of the British Parliament. While
appeals from England were heard by the House of Lords, those from British
colonies were heard by the judicial commission of the privy council.

Jayakar said that on October 26, 1949, the privy council did not grant leave
(permission to file the petition) to the families of the accused, including Godse, who
had filed the SLP.

They had refused to grant leave on the ground that even if they did admit the
petition, it would not have been decided before January 26, 1950 when the Indian
Supreme Court was to be born. Once the Supreme Court of India came into
existence, the jurisdiction to hear the SLP would lie with it.

The day the privy council turned down the petition of the families, the death
warrants against Godse and Narayan Apte were issued and November 15, 1949 was
set as the date for the execution.

The families of Godse and Apte filed a mercy petition with the then Governor-
general C Gopalachari on November 5, 1949. But on November 7, 1949, he
dismissed the petition, declining to interfere in the matter. Godse and Apte were
hanged in the Ambala prison, said Jayakar.

Three accused, Gangadhar Dandawate, Gangadhar Jadhav and Suryadev Sharma

were not traced and declared absconders. Till date nobody knows what happened
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/manyfactsaboutgodsetrialnotknowntoworld/ 2/9