New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has set aside the Gujarat government's decision to prematurely release 11 people convicted for raping Bilkis Bano and murdering her family members during the 2002 communal riots. The convicts, released by the Gujarat government in 2022, have been ordered to surrender within two weeks.
The court, while delivering verdict on a clutch of petitions challenging the government's 2022 move, said the Gujarat government didn't have the jurisdiction to decide the remission of sentence.
The Supreme Court said the right to decide the remission plea of the convicts rests with the state where the trial took place -- in this case, Maharashtra.
The Supreme Court held that the judgment in May 2022, directing the Gujarat government to consider remission for a convict, was obtained by "playing fraud" on the court and suppressing material facts. The court also said that the convicts hadn't approached the court with clean hands, reported ANI.
In a strongly worded rejoinder, the court said the Gujarat government had usurped the power of the Maharashtra government by not filing the review petition against the May 2022 judgment.
"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said, per PTI.
{{/usCountry}}"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said, per PTI.
{{/usCountry}}The court also pulled up the Gujarat government for passing the remission order in August 2022 in a cyclostyled manner, with no application of mind.
The Supreme Court said the convicts will have to approach the Maharashtra government with a fresh remission plea.
Meanwhile, Justice BV Nagarathna, announcing the verdict, said the Supreme Court must act as a beacon in upholding the rule of law.
In March 2002, during the Godhra riots, Bilkis Bano was gang raped and left to die. Several members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were murdered.
On August 15, 2022, the 11 life-term convicts were released as per Gujarat's remission policy that was in place at the time of their conviction in 2008.
In an affidavit, the Gujarat government had defended the remission granted to convicts saying they completed 14 years in prison and their behaviour was good.