New Delhi, Aug 23 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to review a plea contesting the remission granted the 11 men found guilty of murder and rape of several victims in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case. The plea was made by counsel Aparna Bhat and senior attorney Kapil Sibal before the bench of Chief Justice N.V.Ramana.Counsel argued that they are contesting the remission decision, pointing out that the pregnant woman was sexually assaulted and that individuals were killed.
The bench was asked whether the convicts had been granted remission as a result of the top court’s order, Sibal replied that the supreme court had only instructed the state to investigate the matter, and that they were contesting the decision to revoke, not the highest court’s order.
The bench replied: “We will see.” As Bhat asked the court to schedule the matter on Wednesday, the court said: “Let us see the papers.”
Eleven convicts sentenced to life prison were released from the Godhra sub-jail on 15 August following the Gujarat government permitted the release of these prisoners under its Remission policy.The convicts served more than 15 years in prison.
In January 2008 the special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the convicts for life imprisonment for gang-rape and the murder of seven of the members of Bilkis Bano’s family.The Bombay High Court upheld their conviction.
Bilkis Bano, who was 21, was 5 months pregnant at the time she was raped by gangs while fleeing the violence which broke out following the Godhra train was destroyed.
The PIL was submitted by Subhashini Ali, Revathy Laul, and Roop Rekha Rani, challenging the decision of the authority in charge of the Gujarat government in the manner of which 11 people who were charged in a series of grave crimes were permitted to leave on August 15 in accordance with remission being extended to the accused.
The petitioners claimed that the granting of relief solely through the authority of the state government without consult with the Centre is unconstitutional in the terms of the provisions of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Based on the circumstances of the case, the plea stated that no right-thinking authority implementing any test under any existing policy would be able to grant remissions to people who be involved in the of the commission of horrifying actions.
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