Bilkis Bano case: SC says plea challenging 11 convicts' remission maintainable

Supreme Court/ File pic

The Supreme Court on Monday held Bilkis Bano's plea challenging the remission of 11 men who were convicted of raping her and killing her baby daughter as maintainable. According to the reports, the top court held that the Maharashtra government was the competent authority to decide on remission for 11 convicts and not the Gujarat government.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan pronounced the judgment. The bench reportedly stated that the Gujarat government was asked to consider remission by suppressing material facts and presenting misleading facts by the convicts.

The apex court also reversed the Gujarat government's decision of granting remission and the convicts will have to return to jail, stated reports. " Supreme Court holds that the State, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts," the court said according to ANI.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horrific 2002 communal riots that had gripped Gujarat after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots. The 11 men, who were convicted of raping her and murder, were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022, which sparked a controversy.

The 11 life-term convicts were released under the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.

Bano, following the remission, filed a plea in the top court challenging the remission granted to the convicts. Other Public Interest Litigations were also filed seeking directions to revoke the remission; these petitions were filed by National Federation of Indian Women's Annie Raja, Subhashini Ali, Revati Laul, Roop Rekha Verma and TMC leader Mahua Moitra, stated a report in ANI.

According to the report, the Gujarat government in its affidavit said that the convicts were granted remission since they completed 14 years of sentence in prison and due to "good behaviour". The state government further stated that it considered cases of all convicts per the 1992 remission policy and that the Union government had also approved of their release.