SC revokes release of Bilkis Bano convicts

• Gujarat lacked authority to grant remission as the convicts were tried and sentenced in Maharashtra, SC said
• Previous order for Gujarat to consider remission based on ‘suppressed facts’ termed a violation of legal process and quashed

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's remission order was without application of mind, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said and asked whether "heinous crimes against women permit remission" whatever faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed. All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022. "We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by Gujarat government," the bench said.

In its more than 100-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order. It clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried in Maharashtra.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," the bench said. The top court also nullified its May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider a remission plea of one of the convicts as the order was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts. It said this is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission.

Reacting to the verdict, senior advocate Vrinda Grover, who appeared for retired IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, termed it a very good judgement. "... (it) has upheld the rule of law and the faith of the people of this country, particularly women, in the legal system, the courts, and that there is an assurance for justice," Grover told reporters. Coming down heavily on the Gujarat government for not filing a review plea against the May 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court said only the state of Maharashtra could have passed the remission orders. "Taking advantage of May 13, 2022 order of this court, other convicts also filed remission applications... Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent no. 3 (one of the convicts) in this case. This Court was misled by suppressing facts," the bench said.