Bilkis Bano case: Supreme Court judge recuses herself from hearing, again

New Delhi, January 4

Justice Bela M Trivedi of the Supreme Court on Wednesday recused herself from hearing petitions against the premature release of 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

As the petitions filed by CPM leader Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, Lucknow University’s former Vice-Chancellor Roop Rekha Verma, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the premature release of the convicts came up for hearing before a Bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Trivedi, lawyers representing the convicts contended the PIL petitioners didn’t have the locus standi in the matter.

However, the Bench said after the victim herself had filed a petition, the question of locus standi should not arise.

Justice Rastogi said Justice Trivedi, who had already recused herself from hearing the victim’s plea, would like to recuse from hearing these petitions as well. Bano’s plea will be taken up as the lead matter and the rest of the petitions would be clubbed with it, he said.