AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has given two reasons for commuting the death penalty of 11 convicts in the 2002 Godhra carnage case, in which 59 people were killed, to rigorous life imprisonment. Primarily , the court held that the mob's intention was not to “enhance the number of casualties“.A bench of Justice A S Dave and Justice G R Udhwani said the two mitigating circumstances were: overcrowding in the ill-fated coach of Sabarmati Express , and that more than 100 people could disembark safely . “It appears that overcrowding in the coach contributed to the enhancement of the number of casualties, which, in our judgment, might have been far, far lower in the absence of the coach being overcrowded with double the official capacity of passengers and luggage,“ the court said.The court further said, “Though the accused had ignited the coach on the onside, about more than 100 people could escape to the offside, suggesting that the accused had the intention to cause death and maximum damage but they did not intend to enhance the number of casualties.“The division bench drew extensively from the Law Commission Report 2015, which said capital punishment should be limited to cases of terrorism and war against the nation. The court observed that merely a large number of deaths does not justify maximum punishment for the convicts. “Imposition of sentence is not an arithmetic calculation qua number of victims and accused to be punished,“ the order reads. The HC said the criteria of a case falling in the “rarest of the rare“ category may differ from court to court.