Published Mar 27, 2023 | 6:30 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 27, 2023 | 6:30 PM
Anger, anguish and pain reflected in slogans and body language of students, women, social activists, academia, legal experts, transgenders. (Credit: Saurav Kumar)
The Supreme Court on Monday, 27 March, sought a response from the Centre, Gujarat government and others on a plea filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Bano has challenged the remission of the sentence of 11 convicts in the case.
While posting the matter for hearing on 18 April, a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said there is a gamut of issues involved and it needs to hear the matter in detail.
The top court issued a notice to the Centre, the Gujarat government and the convicts.
It also directed the Gujarat government to be ready with the relevant files granting remission to the parties on the next date of the hearing.
During the hearing, the bench observed that it would not be overwhelmed by emotions in the case and would only go by the law.
On 4 January, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the petition filed by Bano and other pleas. However, Justice Trivedi recused from hearing the case without citing any reason.
Bano had moved the apex court on 30 November last year challenging the “premature” release of 11 lifers by the state government, saying it has “shaken the conscience of society”.
Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court’s 13 May, 2022, order on a plea by a convict. The review plea was later dismissed in December last year.
All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on 15 August last year.
The survivor, in her pending writ petition, has said the state government passed a “mechanical order” completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court.
“The en-masse premature release of the convicts in the much-talked-about 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 past verdicts, the plea said en-masse remissions are not permissible and, moreover, such a relief cannot be sought or granted as a matter of right without examining the case of each convict individually based on their peculiar facts and role played by them in the crime.
“The present writ petition challenging the decision of the state/central government granting remission to all the 11 convicts and releasing them prematurely in one of the most gruesome crimes of extreme inhuman violence and brutality,” it said.
Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in Gujarat. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.
The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.
A special CBI court in Mumbai had on 21 January, 2008, sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape of Bano and murder of seven members of her family.
Their conviction was later 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 15 August, last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.
(With PTI inputs)
