SC junks Gujarat govt’s review petition in Bilkis Bano case
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the Gujarat government’s petition seeking a review of the January 8 verdict quashing the remission granted to 11 men convicted of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
In its review petition filed in February, the Gujarat government had said the top court's adverse comments had caused "serious prejudice" to it.
"The extreme observation made by this Hon’ble Court that the State of Gujarat “acted in tandem and was complicit with Respondent No3/accused” is not only highly unwarranted and against the record of the case, but has caused serious prejudice to the Petitioner-State of Gujarat," the Gujarat government had submitted in its review petition.
"In view of the errors on the face of the record, brought to the notice of this Hon’ble Court as mentioned hereinabove, the interference of this Hon’ble Court is imperative and this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to review its impugned common final judgement and order dated 08.01.2024...," it had submitted.
However, a Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan dismissed the review petition, saying there was no merit in it.
"Having carefully gone through the Review Petitions, the order under challenge and the papers annexed therewith, we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record or any merit in the Review Petitions, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned. The Review Petitions are, accordingly, dismissed," the Bench said in its order.
The Supreme Court had on January 8 quashed the premature release of 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing seven of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, saying the Gujarat government didn’t have the jurisdiction to deal with their remission pleas.
It had slammed the Gujarat government for being "complicit” and acting in tandem with one of the convicts and usurpation of powers not vested in it in granting remission to the convicts.
A Bench of Justice Nagarathna and Justice Bhuyan had held “that the Government of State of Gujarat had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission or pass the orders of remission on 10.08.2022 in favour of respondent No.3 to 13 (the convicts) herein as it was not the appropriate government within the meaning of sub-section (7) of Section 432 of the CrPC.”
It said the “appropriate government” to consider their remission pleas was the Government of Maharashtra where the trial took place.
Bilkis Bano, pregnant at the time of crime, was gang-raped 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 sevaks' were burnt to death.
The 11 convicts prematurely released 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 granted remission on August 10, 2022 and were released on August 15 last year due to completion of 15 years in prison, besides their age and behaviour during incarceration.
