The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, against the remission of sentence of 11 convicts.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, that the new bench will be formed.
Gupta mentioned the matter for urgent hearing and said that a new bench needs to be constituted.
In May 2022, a bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath directed the Gujarat government to decide on the remission application as per the remission policy of 1992.
The bench ruled that the offence took place in Gujarat, thus the Gujarat government had jurisdiction to consider the request.
On March 22, 2023, the Supreme Court agreed to constitute a bench to hear pleas challenging the early remission of the 11 convicts who gangraped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family.
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Bano, through her lawyer, Advocate Shobha Gupta sought a review of the judgement by contending that the judgement was contrary to Section 432(7)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrCP).
The section states that the appropriate government to decide remission is the government of the state where the trial was held, which was in Maharashtra.
Bano's plea against the apex court contended that the remission police of the state of Maharashtra should apply in the case instead of the 1992 Gujarat remission policy.
Bano also filed a separate writ petition challenging the Gujarat government's decision to release the 11 convicts.
The Bilkis Bano case convicts were released on Independence Day, August 15, by the Gujarat government under a past remission policy.
The Gujarat government released all 11 convicts under the 1992 remission policy. However, if the Gujarat government had gone by the 2014 remission policy instead the convicts could not have been released.
The 2014 remission policy bars the release of rape and murder convicts.
The remission of the Bilkis Bano case convicts drew criticism from activists and politicians and several petitions questioned the premature release.
The Gujarat government mentioned that the decision was approved by the Centre. However, its affidavit revealed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the presiding judge of the trial court objected to the release of the convicts as their offence was grave and heinous.
Justice Bela M Trivedi had recused herself from the matter on Monday, December 13.
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