Supreme Court's Justice Bela Trivedi Opts Out Of Bilkis Bano Case Hearing

In the 2002 case involving her gang rape and the murder of seven members of her family on December 13, Justice Bela M. Trivedi—a member of the Supreme Court bench who was scheduled to hear Bilkis Bano's appeal—recused herself from the hearing today. As a result, the case was postponed and must be listed before a new bench.

As soon as the case was taken up for hearing by a bench of justices consisting of Ajay Rastogi and Bela M. Trivedi, Justice Rastogi stated that his sister judge would not like hearing the case. The panel led by Justice Rastogi ruled, "List the matter before a bench of which one of us is not a member." The bench did not give a reason for Justice Trivedi's withdrawal. From 2004 to 2006, Justice Trivedi served as the Gujarat Government's Law Secretary.

Justice Bela Trivedi Opts Out Of  Bilkis Bano Case Hearing

Bilkis Bano contested the Gujarat government's early release of the prisoners in two separate petitions filed on August 15 and claimed that the state had broken the law by passing a mechanical order that completely disregarded the Supreme Court's legal requirements.

When Bilkis Bano was gang raped in the 2002 Gujarat riots that followed the Godhra train burning incident, she was 21 and five months pregnant. One of the seven members of her family who died was her three-year-old daughter.

Suggested Reading: Bilkis Bano Case: Where Are We At Fault?

She had said at the time of filing of the petitions, "The decision to once again stand up and knock on the doors of justice was not easy for me. For a long time, after the men who destroyed my entire family and my life were released, I was simply numb. I was paralysed with shock and with fear for my children, my daughters, and above all, paralysed by loss of hope."

The Supreme Court ordered that the CBI conduct the case's investigation and that a Maharashtra court conduct the trial. The trial was also moved to Maharashtra by the Supreme Court. The 11 were given a life sentence on January 21, 2008, by a special CBI court in Mumbai. Later, both the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court upheld their conviction.