Bilkis case: Top court bins Gujarat’s plea for review of adverse comments

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the Gujarat Government’s petition seeking a review of the January 8 verdict indicting it for “acting in tandem” with one of the 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

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‘Acted in tandem’ with a convict

• On January 8, the SC had quashed the premature release of 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano.
• It had slammed the Gujarat Government for being “complicit” and “acting in tandem” with one of the convicts

While quashing the remission granted to the 11 convicts, the top court had slammed the Gujarat Government for being “complicit” with one of the convicts. In its review petition filed in February, the state government had said the top court’s adverse comments had caused “serious prejudice” to it.

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 Gujarat Government had submitted in its review petition that “the extreme observation made by the 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).”

It had said, “In view of the errors on the face of the record, brought to the notice of this court, the interference of this court is imperative and this court may be pleased to review its impugned common final judgment and order dated 08.01.2024....”

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 also pulled up the Gujarat Government for usurpation of powers not vested in it to grant remission to the convicts. It had held “that the Government 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 had 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 and their behaviour during incarceration.