Supreme Court to hear petitions challenging Bilkis Bano case convicts' release on April 18

Supreme Court will hear Bano's plea on April 18, 2023

The Supreme Court on March 27 set April 18 at 2 PM for the final hearing of petitions challenging the pre-mature release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.

The court also requested the Union government and the Gujarat state government to provide documents related to the release of the convicts. Justice KM Joseph, who led the bench, observed that the crimes committed against Bilkis Bano were "horrendous." However, the bench clarified that they would only hear legal questions and not emotional pleas.

The petitions challenging the early release were filed by Bilkis Bano and certain public-spirited individuals. The court asked the parties to briefly explain the points that will be argued when the hearing starts.

After hearing the lawyers, the court asked Gujarat if it had considered the past record of the convicts who were released on remission and if such a remission policy would be applied to convicts in other cases as well.

The lawyer for one of the convicts argued that public-spirited persons cannot file pleas and intervene in a criminal case, but the court refused to consider the argument at this stage.

Bano had moved the apex court on November 30, 2022, challenging the "premature" release of 11 lifers by the state government, saying it has "shaken the conscience of society."

The victim also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court's May 13, 2022, order on a plea by a convict, which was later dismissed in December last year.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year. The victim, 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 plea stated that en-masse remissions are not permissible, and 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.

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. 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 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 August 15 last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy.

They had completed more than 15 years in jail. PILs were filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, Revati Laul, an independent journalist, Roop Rekha Verma, who is a former vice chancellor of the Lucknow University, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts, and the top court is seized of these PILs.