Breaking: Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea Challenging Remission Of Sentence Of Convicts In Bilkis Bano Rape Case
The Supreme Court today issued notice on the plea challenging the remission granted to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The Court also directed the Petitioner to implead the Convicts who have been released as respondents.
The Bench comprising of Chief Justice N. V. Ramana, Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath directed for listing of the matter after two weeks.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal started by reading out the details of the crime that the beneficiaries of the remission were convicted for. The Court interrupted saying that these are facts of the case.
The question is only whether they are entitled to remission as per the policy, the Bench said. The CJI also said that the Court in its previous judgment had not asked for the release of the convicts.
Sibal then said that he wants records of the remission to be called for.
The Counsel for the convict said that the plea is not maintainable since the petitioner is a third party and that they have not been made a party.
The Court then told Sibal that the accused should be impleaded in the plea and issued a direction to that extent.
The plea filed by Subhashini Ali, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) before the Bench challenges the remission which was granted to the 11 convicts of the Bilkis Bano Case by the Gujarat Government.
The petition challenges the order of remission pursuant to which on August 15 all the convicts of the case were released from Godhra jail. The Supreme Court had previously asked the Gujarat government to decide the applications of the convicts for remission, holding that the Gujarat Government would be the appropriate government to decide the applications in terms of the state's police of 1992.
"The respondents are directed to consider the application of the petitioner for premature release in terms of its policy dated 9th July, 1992 which is applicable on the date of conviction and may be decided within a period of two months. If any adverse order is passed, the petitioner is at liberty to seek remedy available to him under the law", a Bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath had directed in May, 2022 on the plea of one Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah.
