Supreme Court dismisses plea of 2 Bilkis Bano case convicts
A bench of the Supreme Court of India on Friday slammed the plea by two convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, Radheshyam Bhagwandas and Rajubhai Babulal Soni, for interim bail till a fresh decision is taken on their pleas for remission. Both the petitioners were convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat genocide.
"What is this plea? How is it even maintainable? Absolutely misconceived. How can an Article 32 petition be filed? We can’t sit in appeal over an order passed by another bench.” the court asked, according to Bar and Bench.
Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing the two convicts, referred to the May 2022 judgement that held that the Gujarat Government was the competent authority to consider the remission. However, the court highlighted that its January judgment had rendered the earlier judgment void.
Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and her three-year-old daughter was among 14 people killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, in Limkheda taluka of Dahod district during the violence. The BJP-led state government granted remission to the convicts and they were released on August 15, 2023.
In January 2024, the Supreme Court cancelled the remission and concluded that the remission policy applicable to the eleven rape convicts was the remission policy in Maharashtra (where the rape case trial took place) and not that of the Gujarat government.
Review petitions challenging the correctness of this verdict, which were filed by the Gujarat government as well as convicts, are pending before the top court.
