New Delhi: In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the Gujarat Government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the State.
Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.
The court has categorically declared that the State’s action constitutes a clear case of both usurpation and abuse of power. The apex court said it is the duty of this court to correct arbitrary orders at the earliest and to retain the foundation of trust of the public. The Supreme Court directed all 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.
The apex court also held that the judgement of May 13, 2022, which directed the Gujarat Government to consider remission of convict, was obtained by ‘playing fraud’ on the court and by suppressing material facts.
The top court also said that the convicts had not approached the court with clean hands. Noting that the State, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts, the apex court held that Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra Government.
Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court, challenging the premature release of 11 convicts. The Gujarat Government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.
In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.
Eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case who have been roaming free since their remission in 2022 will have to return to jail within two weeks, the Supreme Court said.
