In a significant development, the Supreme Court of India has postponed the hearing of a series of pleas against the early release of life convicts in the Bilkis Bano case to August 7. The decision came after the court confirmed that all respondents had been duly served notice.
The case will now be heard by a bench headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, following the retirement of Justice KM Joseph. The bench will examine the decision of the Gujarat government to grant remission to the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders and violent sexual assault during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. These convicts were released on Independence Day last year after their application for remission of the sentence was approved by the state government.
Justice Nagarathna, sitting alongside newly appointed Supreme Court judge Ujjal Bhuyan, stated:
“The counsel for Bilkis Bano submitted that newspaper publication as directed by this court was effected on June 1, 2023 and an affidavit with that regard was filed on June 7. Similarly, in other cases, notices on the respondent are stated to be served either directly or by newspaper publication. This fact is not disputed by Solicitor-General for India Tushar Mehta appearing for both the Union of India and the State of Gujarat, as well as other counsel appearing for the private respondents. Therefore, the service on all respondents is held to be complete.”
The court has granted the respondents four weeks to file their responses to Bano’s petition. Despite protests from Advocate Shobha Gupta, representing the survivor, for a ‘shorter date’, Justice Nagarathna allowed the respondents ample time to file their responses.
The case dates back to 2002 when Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was gang-raped during the post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat. Seven of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed by rioters. In 2008, a sessions court in Mumbai convicted the accused under Sections 302, and 376(2)(e)(g) read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and handed them a life sentence. The Bombay High Court upheld the conviction in 2017, and in 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to pay Rs 50 lakhs as compensation to Bano, as well as provide her with a government job and a house.
The early release of the convicts last year sparked widespread outrage and led to a series of petitions filed before the Supreme Court, challenging the Gujarat government’s decision. The petitioners include Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Subhashini Ali, professor Rooplekha Verma, journalist Revati Laul, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, former IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar, and the National Federation of Indian Women. The Supreme Court issued notice in the first set of pleas on August 25, 2022, and agreed to take on board another batch on September 9, 2022.