The Supreme Court will hear on March 27 a batch of petitions challenging the remission of the sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case...
Digital Desk: The Supreme Court will hear on March 27 a batch of petitions challenging the remission of the sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, that also involves the killing of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna will hear the pleas of several political and civil rights activists, and a writ petition filed by Bano.
On March 22, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ordered that the case be listed for urgent consideration and agreed to form a new bench to hear the batch of petitions.
On January 4, a bench comprised of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi heard the petition submitted by Bano and the other pleas. However, Justice Trivedi declined to hear the case for no apparent cause.
Bano had moved the Supreme Court on November 30 last year, claiming that the state government's "premature" release of 11 lifers had "shaken the conscience of society."
In addition to the plea contesting the prisoners' release, the victim of gang rape had also submitted a separate petition asking for a review of the supreme court's ruling on a plea by a prisoner from May 13, 2022. In December of last year, the review petition was rejected.
All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year.
In her pending writ petition, the victim claims that the state government issued a "mechanical order" that totally ignored the Supreme Court's requirement of law.
"The en masse premature release of the convicts in the much-discussed case of Bilkis Bano has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in a number of agitations across the country," she said.
Referring to previous verdicts, the plea stated that en-masse remissions are not permitted, and that such relief cannot be sought or granted as a matter of right without first examining the case of each convict individually based on their unique facts and part in the crime.
"The present writ petition challenges the decision of the state/central government granting remission to all 11 convicts and prematurely releasing them in one of the most heinous crimes of extreme inhuman violence and brutality," it said.
The plea, which gave minute details of the crime, said Bano and her grown-up daughters were "shell-shocked with this sudden development."
"When the nation was celebrating its 76th Independence Day, all the convicts were released prematurely and were garlanded and felicitated in full public glare, and sweets were circulated," it said.
PILs submitted by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul, former vice chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts have been seized by the Supreme Court.
Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while escaping the riots that erupted following the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was one of the seven people killed in the attack.
The inquiry in the case was turned over to the CBI, and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.
On January 21, 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-raping Bano and murdering seven members of her family.
Their conviction was subsequently upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.
The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15, last year, after the Gujarat government granted their freedom under its remission policy. They had spent more than 15 years in jail.
Leave A Comment