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‘A Fraud Act’: SC cancels Gujarat govt decision to release Bilkis Bano rape convicts

Cancelling the order by the BJP-led government in Gujarat to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case, the SC held that it "was not competent" to make such a decision and termed the move a "fraud act". Read More

Monday January 8, 2024 3:05 PM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

[Upon their release from the jail, the convicts were garlanded and hailed as heroes.]

New Delhi: In a major setback for Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Supreme Court of India Monday January 08, 2024 cancelled the Gujarat government’s decision to release Bilkis Bano rape convicts.

Cancelling the order by the BJP-led government in Gujarat to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case, the SC held that it "was not competent" to make such a decision and termed the move a "fraud act".

'Usurpation of power'

The Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarthana and Ujjal Bhuyan in its order said the Gujarat government ordered the release of the 2002 Gujarat riot gang-rape convicts "without application of mind".

"Criminals can be released only by the state where they are tried, which is Maharashtra in this case", the apex court said.

"The exercise of power by the state of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation and abuse of power," said the court.

In a highly anticipated order, the apex court also said that 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 11 men convicted in the case were released on August 15 last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The convicts had completed 15 years in jail.

A batch of the petitions, including the one filed by Bano, were filed against their release. The other petitions were filed by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, National Federation of Indian Women, Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, Asma Shafique Shaikh and others.

The Gujarat government in 1992 had announced 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.

During a hearing on the petitions in April 2023, the Supreme Court , while stressing on the gravity of the offence in the Bilkis Bano case and on the remission granted to 11 convicts, had said, "unequals cannot be treated equally".

During the same hearing the SC noted that a pregnant woman was gang-raped and several people were killed and the case cannot be compared with a standard Section 302 (murder) case.

 

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