The 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government on August 15, 2022.
Agencies/JK News Today
New Delhi, Jan. 08: A 2-judge Supreme Court bench on Monday quashed the Gujarat government’s August 2022 decision granting remission to 11 convicts in the case of the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano, and murder of seven of her family members, during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The bench, comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, reserved the verdict on October 12 last year after holding hearings for 11 days in the case. Multiple pleas were filed challenging the remission, including one by Bilkis herself. Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra, CPI(M)’s Subhashini Ali too are among multiple petitioners in the case.
The convicts’ release triggered massive outrage. Their remission and release from jail coincided with the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, and came hours after prime minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation from the historic Red Fort in Delhi.
The bench directs all 11 convicts to return to jail, and seek fresh remission from the Maharashtra government.
Their conviction was upheld by the Bombay high court in 2017. The case was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and trial was shifted from Gujarat to Maharashtra.
Supreme Court rules that the Gujarat government was not competent to grant remission to the convicts.
“It is not the Govt of the State where the offence took place or the offenders are imprisoned which is the appropriate govt for remission, but the Govt of the State where the conviction took places,” says Justice Nagarathna.
The convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in Mumbai (Maharashtra) in 2008.
Bench assembles to pronounce verdict; holds that Bilkis’ plea challenging remission of the convicts is ‘maintainable.’
