NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the Gujarat government for granting remission to 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, saying the state should have considered the gravity of the offence before taking the call. Terming the case of a pregnant woman being gang-raped and her relatives murdered as horrendous, Justice K M Joseph said, “When you exercise power, it has to be for public good. Specially in this case because crimes are committed against the community... What is the message you are sending? Will you compare a case of murder of a single person with that of 14 helpless people... Like you cannot compare apples with oranges, massacre cannot be compared with single murder.” The bench also took strong exception to the Gujarat government and the Centre proposing to file a review petition citing privilege to challenge the court’s March 27 direction to produce before it all relevant files on remission.
“We are seeking review of the order for producing files and also seeking privilege. Besides, many documents are in Gujarati, they require translation,” Additional Solicitor General S V Raju submitted. Justice Joseph retorted, “If you don’t show us the files, then we will draw our own conclusion. What is the problem in showing us the files today? You’re in contempt if you haven’t produced it .
What is the difficulty?” The court granted them time to decide on filing the review petition and posted the matter for final disposal on May 2. During the hearing, the bench also questioned the extent of parole given to the convicts. “Look at the records, one of them was granted parole for 1,000 days that is three years, the other 1,200 days and third is for 1,500 days. What policy have you (Gujarat government) been following? It is not a simple case of Section 302 (murder).”
Proportional yardstick
“The power of the state government to grant remission is not amenable for judicial review unless manifestly arbitrary. But it should be proportional to crime,” the bench observed