The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the appropriateness of one of the prematurely released convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case practising law.
A Bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said the law was known as a noble profession. The Bench asked whether the State Bar Council could permit the prematurely released convict to practise law.
“Can a licence to practise law be given after conviction?” Justice Bhuyan asked.
The exchange came when the court came to know that one of the convicts, Radheyshyam Shah, was now a member of the Bar specialising in motor accidents claims.
Shah’s counsel, advocate Rishi Malhotra, said his client had undergone his sentence. But the court noted that he had not served his entire sentence but had merely benefited from an early release.
Mr. Malhotra said the objective of the criminal justice system was not to wreak vengeance but to reform convicts. He said his client was a lawyer before the conviction and now he had resumed his law practice for his livelihood.
In an earlier hearing, Ms. Bano, who challenged the premature release of the 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment, had highlighted the “cold-blooded brutality” that marked the murders of at least seven persons.
Advocate Shobha Gupta, for Ms. Bano, had recounted in court the nature of the deaths, including that of a three-year-old child, at the hands of rioters in Gujarat in 2002.
She had recounted that of the 14 killed on March 3 at Pannivel village, the bodies of only seven were found.
