The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear today the petitions challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the rape case, including the murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family.
Bilkis Bano News: Hearing is to be held in the Supreme Court today against the court’s decision to grant premature release to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The matter will be heard by the Division Bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagaratna. The petitions filed by several civil rights activists, including others, and a writ petition filed by Bano are yet to be heard by the court. For now, all eyes are on the court’s decision.
The court had agreed to set up a new bench for the hearing
Earlier on March 22, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had directed for urgent listing of the matter and agreed to set up a fresh bench to hear the arguments. On January 4, a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi considered the petition filed by Bano and other petitions. However, Justice Trivedi recused himself from hearing the matter without assigning any reason, following which the hearing was adjourned.
Earlier the court had dismissed the petition
Bano had on November 30 last year challenged the state government’s “premature release” of 11 life convicts in the apex court, saying the decision had “shaken the conscience of the society”. Apart from the petition challenging the acquittal of the convicts, the gangrape victim had also filed a separate petition seeking review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022 order on a convict’s plea. The review petition was later dismissed in December last year.
All the convicts were released on 15 August 2022
All the 11 convicts were given immunity by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year. The victim, in her pending writ petition, has stated that the state government passed an order completely ignoring the requirement of the law laid down by the Supreme Court. He said, “The premature release of the convicts in the famous Bilkis Bano case has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in several agitations across the country.”
what is the whole matter
In fact, when Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant, she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. His three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed. The investigation of the case was handed over to the CBI and the Supreme Court transferred the trial to a court in Maharashtra. On January 21, 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai sentenced 11 to life imprisonment for the gang rape of Bano and the murder of seven of her family members.
The 11 people 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 immunity policy. He had completed more than 15 years in jail. A hearing is now to be held in the Supreme Court against the court’s decision to give premature release to the convicts.