The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea against the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, which also involves the killing of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, that the new bench will be formed.
CJI D.Y. Chandrachud said, “I will have a bench constituted. Need to break two benches for it. Will look at it this evening.”
Earlier on 7 February, the plea was mentioned for urgent hearing by a fresh bench and the CJI had assured Bano’s lawyer that he will set up one at the earliest. Prior to this, the hearing on Bano’s plea could not be taken up for hearing on January 24 as the judges concerned were hearing a matter related to passive euthanasia as part of a five-judge constitution bench. On that day, the petition was listed for hearing before a bench of justices Rastogi and CT Ravikumar. Both justices Rastogi and Ravikumar were then busy hearing, as part of a constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph, the pleas seeking modification of guidelines on the execution of a “Living Will or Advance Medical Directive” for permitting passive euthanasia. On January 4, a bench comprising justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the plea, including some PILs. However, Justice Trivedi recused from hearing the case without citing any reason. Bano had moved the apex court on November 30, 2022 challenging the “premature” release of 11 lifers by the state government, saying it has “shaken the conscience of society”. Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022 order on a plea by a convict. The review plea was later dismissed in December last year. All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, last year. The victim, in her pending writ petition, has said the state government passed a “mechanical order” completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court. “The en-masse premature release of the convicts in the much talked about case of Bilkis Bano has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in a number of agitations across the country,” she has said in the plea.
