Abuse of Power by Gujarat Govt Bilkis ‘s Rapists to Return to Jail

New Delhi: Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission to 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks. The Gujarat government was “complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts” who had approached the top court with his plea for premature release in the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court on Monday said and slammed the state government for “usurpation of power” while granting remission to the convicts. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said it fails to understand why the State of Gujarat did not file a review petition against the judgment dated May 13, 2022, which directed the Gujarat government to consider the plea of a convict for premature release
as per the State policy of July 9, 1992. The Gujarat government in 1992 came out with a fresh remission policy under which pleas of those convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment and had served a minimum of 14 years of sentence could be considered after a favourable opinion from the Jail Advisory Board. “Taking advantage of the May 13, 2022 order of this court,
other convicts also filed remission applications and the Gujarat government passed remission orders. Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent No. 3 (convict Radheshyam Shah) in this case. This court was misled by suppressing facts. Use of power by Gujarat was only an usurpation of power by the State,” the bench said. The top court also nullified its May 13, 2022, order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider of Odisha .

About Post Author