A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice B.V. Nagarathna is scheduled on January 8 to pronounce its judgment on petitions challenging Gujarat government’s decision to prematurely release 11 men sentenced to life for the gang rape of Bilks Bano and murder of her family during the 2002 riots.
The Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had reserved the case for judgment in October 2023. The court had heard writ petitions separately filed by Ms. Bano and others, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Subhashini Ali and Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra.
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The arguments primarily focused on whether the State had followed uniform standards while granting early remission to the 11 men when murder convicts tend to otherwise languish in prison for years.
Ms. Bano’s lawyer, advocate Shobha Gupta, had submitted that the convicts did not deserve remission for the heinous nature of their crimes.
She had also challenged the jurisdiction of Gujarat, arguing that the trial happened in Maharashtra, and the State government there was the competent authority to decide on the issue of remission.
Ms. Gupta had referred to Section 432(7)(b) which said the “appropriate government” would be the “State within which the offender is sentenced”.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A.M. Singhvi and advocate Vrinda Grover, for the other petitioners, had argued that both the trial judge in Mumbai and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was the prosecuting agency, had disagreed with the proposal to release the convicts. The Centre had however endorsed the early release.
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Ms. Grover said the convicts were supposed to pay a fine of ₹34,000 or face 34 years in prison. “The fine has not been paid. That sentence was never served,” she had submitted.
The counsel for one of the convicts, advocate Rishi Malhotra, argued that Gujarat had decided the plea for early release on the basis of a Supreme Court judgment in May 2022.
This judgment had allowed the State of Gujarat to consider the pleas for early release under its Premature Release Policy of 1992. The apex court had earlier dismissed a plea to review the May 2022 judgment.
