Bilkis Bano case: The Supreme Court on January 8 said the May 2022 order of another apex court bench was invalid as it was obtained fraudulently by the petitioner convict. It has canceled the early release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case. All 11 will be sent back to jail.
It quashed the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission of sentence to 11 Bilkis Bano rape convicts. The top court has also pulled up the Gujarat government for mindlessly passing the order of relaxation in August 2022 in a cyclonic manner.
Track Live | Bilkis Bano case hearing
It said the Gujarat government did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the exemption as the appropriate government to consider the exemption was the state where the suit arose. In such a situation, this incident happened in Maharashtra.
On January 8, the Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan considered the PIL challenging the exemption maintainable, saying the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the exemption order.
background
Bilkis Bano had filed a petition challenging the remission in punishment given to the culprits. Apart from the petition filed by Bano, several other PILs, including those by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former Lucknow University vice-chancellor Roop Rekha Verma, have challenged the relief.
TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against commutation of sentence and premature release.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in Gujarat. His three-year-old daughter was one of seven family members killed in the riots.
All 11 convicts were granted immunity by the Gujarat government and were released on August 15, 2022.
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Published: 08 January 2024, 11:03 am IST
