Bilkis Bano case: 11 convicts must surrender within two weeks of SC’s verdict | What we know so far

Bilkis Bano case: 11 convicts must surrender within two weeks | Everything you need to know

New Delhi: According to the latest development in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, 11 convicts who have been at large since their remission last year will have to return to prison within two weeks, as ordered by the Supreme Court on Monday. The Apex Court canceled the remission granted by the Gujarat government to the eleven accused, stating that the state government had no jurisdiction to decide on remission. The Supreme Court’s order came after it heard the victim woman’s plea seeking remission of the convicts. The court ruled that the request given was ‘maintainable’ and could challenge the remission.
“The rule of law must be upheld without regard to the consequences,” the Apex Court said while announcing the verdict.
Speaking about their own verdict in May last year, which was delivered by Justice Ajay Rastogi (retired), the eleven convicts could appeal to the state government for their anticipatory remission. it stated that the earlier judgment was based on the facts and materials fraudulently obtained by those who applied for remission.
The case was later moved to Maharashtra to ensure fair proceedings. Therefore, only the Maharashtra government and not the Gujarat government has the jurisdiction to grant remission, the top court said.
The convicts had not come to court with clean hands, the apex court observed.
Noting that the State, where an offender is tried and convicted, has jurisdiction to decide the remission petition of convicts, the Supreme Court held that Gujarat had no jurisdiction to issue the remission orders, but the Maharashtra government.
In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with fourteen members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.
The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All 11 life convicts in the case were released under the remission policy in force in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008. .
Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court challenging the premature release of 11 convicts.
Some PILs were filed seeking directions to cancel the remission of 11 convicts.
The pleas have been filed by National Federation of Indian Women, whose general secretary is Annie Raja, Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.
The Gujarat government in its affidavit defended the remission granted to the convicts, saying they had served 14 years in prison and their “conduct was found to be good”.
The state government had said that it had investigated the cases of all eleven convicts as per the 1992 policy and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and the central government had also approved the release of convicts.

(With ANI inputs)