New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Gujarat government on a petition filed by three activists challenging the premature release of 11 convicts Bilkis Bano gangrape case that sparked widespread outrage.
“Issue notice…We direct the 11 convicts to be impleaded in the case,” a Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said, directing the Gujarat Government to respond to the petition filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, journalist and filmmaker Revati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma.
“We have to see whether there was application of mind in this case while granting remission,” said the Bench – which also included Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath.
As the Bench asked, “Are you saying remission cannot be granted,” senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, said, “We only want to see if application of mind was there.”
“Merely because the act was horrific, is that sufficient to say remission is wrong? “Day in and day out remission is granted to convicts of life sentence…what is the exception?” Justice Rastogi asked senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners.
Justice Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath were part of the top court Bench which in May 2022 held that Gujarat Government was the “appropriate government” to consider the remission plea. It had asked the Gujarat Government to decide the remission applications of the convicts in two months.
Describing the petitioners as “strangers”, the Gujarat government counsel opposed the petition, saying it was not maintainable.
The 11 convicts prematurely released on August 15 were Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana. They were said to have been released due to completion of 14 years in prison, besides their age and behaviour during incarceration.
Bilkis Bano, pregnant at the time of crime, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha and 13 others were killed by a mob on March 3, 2002 in Dahod during violence that broke out in Gujarat after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 ‘kar sewaks’, were burnt to death.
The Supreme Court had handed over the probe to the CBI and the trial was shifted to Mumbai where a Sessions Court in 2008 convicted 11 accused of gangrape and murder and awarded life imprisonment to them. Later, the conviction was upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.