A Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said the reasons cited by the convicts have no merits.
Published Jan 19, 2024 | 2:21 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 19, 2024 | 2:21 PM
Bilkis Bano. (X)
The Supreme Court, on Friday, 19 January, dismissed a plea by 11 convicts in the case of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots seeking an extension of time to surrender.
A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the reasons cited by the convicts have no merits.
“We have heard senior counsel and counsel for the applicants and the counsel for the non-applicants also. The reasons cited by applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail have no merit inasmuch as those reasons in no way prevent them from complying with our directions. Hence, the miscellaneous applications are dismissed,” the bench said.
The top court, on 8 January, had quashed the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case, saying the orders were “stereotyped” and passed without application of mind.
It had asked the convicts to surrender before jail authorities by 21 January.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was brutally raped while fleeing after communal riots broke out in the aftermath of the Godhra train-burning incident in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were murdered at the time.
On 15 August, 2022, all 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released.
However, on 8 January, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order.
The apex court held that the judgement of 13 May, 2022 (which directed the Gujarat government to consider remission) is a nullity as it was obtained by ”playing fraud on the court” and by suppressing material facts.
“The Gujarat government usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government, acting in furtherance of the judgement dated 13 May, 2022, which is, in our opinion a nullity. It was the state of Maharashtra which was the appropriate government to consider remission,” the Bench noted.
“The State of Gujarat acted in complicity with the convicts…it was this very apprehension which led this court to transfer the trial out of the state,” the Bench added.
The convicts have been directed to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.
Reacting to the verdict, Bilkis Bano released a statement, issued through her advocate Shobha Gupta.
“Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again. This is what justice feels like,” Bano said in her statement.
She thanked the Supreme Court for their verdict in her favour, “I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children, and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all.”
In her statement, she thanked her family and friends for their unwavering support, “I have said before, and I say again today, journeys like mine can never be made alone. I have had my husband and my children by my side. I have had my friends who have given me so much love at a time of such hate, and held my hand at each difficult turn. I have had an extraordinary lawyer, Advocate Shobha Gupta, who has walked with me unwaveringly for over 20 long years, and who never allowed me to lose hope in the idea of justice.”
She added, “Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL petitions in the Supreme Court. 6,000 people from all over, and 8,500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals; 10,000 people wrote an Open Letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka.”
