Supreme Court quashes remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, January 8

The Supreme Court on Monday 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.

A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan 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.

“The Government of the State of Gujarat had usurped the powers of the State of Maharashtra which only could have considered the applications seeking remission. Hence, the doctrine of usurpation of powers applies in the instant case,” it said.

The Bench, which had on October 12 last year reserved its verdict on petitions filed by Bano and others, directed the convicts to surrender before jail authorities concerned in two weeks, saying they can’t apply for remission afresh while on bail.

It 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.

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.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission granted to them, several other PILs, including the one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, have challenged the remission. TMC MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission.

While holding that Bano’s petition was “maintainable”, the top court refused to go into the maintainability of PILs challenging the remission of sentence of the convicts, saying the issue will be examined in “an appropriate case’ in future.

The Gujarat Government had defended the premature release of the 11 convicts, saying they were entitled to reformation.

The Bench declared the remission order passed by the Government of Gujarat as a “nullity”, as it was based on May 13, 2022 order of the top court directing it to consider the convicts’ remission pleas that was contrary to the larger bench decisions.

“If really State of Gujarat had in mind the provisions of law and the judgments of this Court, and had adhered to the rule of law, it would have filed a review petition before this Court by contending that it was not the appropriate Government.

“By failing to do so, not only are the earlier orders of this Court in the matter have been vindicated but more importantly, rule of law has been breached in usurping power not vested in it and thereby aiding respondent Nos.3 to 13. This is a classic case where the order of this Court dated 13.05.2022 has been used for violating the rule of law while passing orders of remission in favour of respondent Nos.3 to13 in the absence of any jurisdiction by respondents – State of Gujarat,” the Bench said.

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