NEW DELHI: Bilkis Bano, who was gang raped by a mob during the Godhra riots in Gujarat when she was 20 years and five months pregnant, suffered a setback from Supreme Court as a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath dismissed her review plea.
“I am directed to inform you that the Review Petition above mentioned filed in Supreme Court was dismissed by the Court on 13th December 2022,” a communication dated December 16 received from SC’s Assistant Registrar stated.
Bilkis in her review plea has stated that the appropriate government, in this case, would not be the State of Gujarat but the State of Maharashtra. The plea also states that the remission policy of the state of Maharashtra would govern this case. Gujarat government’s 1992 policy did not prohibit the remission of rape, gang rape or murder convicts.
Supreme Court’s May 13 verdict favoured Radhey Shyam, one of the convicts in the case, who had 15 years and 4 months of custody. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath, while directing the Gujarat government to consider his plea seeking premature release in terms of its policy dated 9th July 1992 within a period of two months, in their order said,
“In the instant case, once the crime was committed in the State of Gujarat after the trial been concluded and judgment of conviction came to be passed, all further proceedings have to be considered including remission or premature release, as the case may be, in terms of the policy which is applicable in the State of Gujarat where the crime was committed and not the State where the trial stands transferred and concluded for exceptional reasons under the orders of this Court.”
Although SC has dismissed her review plea, her challenge for the release of the 11 convicts is still pending. It was earlier listed before the bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi but couldn’t be heard due to Justice Trivedi’s recusal.
Bilkis, in her plea challenging the release of convicts, termed the Gujarat government’s remission order as “mechanical”. Contending that the paper for “premature release” of the convicts was not shared with her despite reminders, the petition said, “SC already declared that en masse remissions are not permissible and that remission cannot be sought or granted as a matter of right of the convict without examining the case of each convict individually based on their peculiar facts and role played by them in the crime.”
Apart from Bilkis, women's rights activists including Subhashini Ali have also challenged the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The plea challenging the remission becomes significant against the backdrop of the Gujarat government as well as the accused (RadheyShyam) questioning the locus of the women rights activists challenging their release.