Top Court Rejects Gujarat Plea To Remove Bilkis Bano Case Criticism

In a big blow to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to remove comments made in its order related to the release of convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.

The state requested removal of certain remarks against it when the top court overruled the premature release of 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat government petition also flagged the court's comment that it had "acted in collusion and colluded with the convicts". The state government argued the comment was inappropriate and against the record of the case, and also biased against the petitioner.

However, a bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan disagreed.

"Having carefully gone through the Review Petitions, the order under challenge and the papers annexed therewith, we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record or any merit in the Review Petitions, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned..."

The top court, in July, had dismissed interim bail petitions filed by two convicts - Radheyshyam Bhagwandas and Rajubhai Babulal. They claimed an "anomalous" situation had arisen; i.e., two different benches of the top court had taken opposite views on the state's early release policy.

READ | "What Is This...": Top Court Junks Bilkis Bano Convicts' Bail Pleas

The court, though, junked that plea.

In January the Supreme Court said the 11 men - who were released by the Gujarat government for "good behaviour" - had to return to jail. The state government was not competent to release the men, the top court said in a landmark order on a decision that had triggered public fury.

"The exemption order lacks competence," the Supreme Court said, berating the Gujarat government for passing such an order "without application of mind".

READ | "Abuse Of Power By Gujarat": Bilkis Bano's Rapists To Return To Jail

The court also noted convicts could only be released by the state that tried them in the first place; in this case, that state was Maharashtra. "The exercise of power by the state of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation of power and abuse of power," the court had said.

In passing this order the court also came down heavily on its judgment of May 2022, delivered by Justice Ajay Rastogi (retired), which allowed the convicts to appeal to the Gujarat government for their early remission. The convicts got the order "through fraudulent means", the judges said. They also noted that the Gujarat government should have sought a review of the 2022 order.

The convicts were released by Gujarat on the basis of an obsolete 1992 remission policy, which has since been superseded by a law in 2014 that bars the release of convicts in cases of capital offence.

The convicts were given a hero's welcome, with garlands and sweets, and they were seen sharing stage with a BJP MP and an MLA. Convict Radheshyam Shah even started practising law, the Supreme Court was told during an 11-day hearing last year of petitions, including one by Bilkis Bano.

Bilkis Bano was 21 and five months' pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing during the communal riots that broke out after the fire in Sabarmati Express in which 59 kar sevaks were killed. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members slaughtered in the riots.

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