New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Monday overturned the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission and early release to 11 convicts in the horrific 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder case.
Citing a jurisdictional error, the court ruled that the Gujarat government lacked the authority to make such a decision in a case where the crime occurred in Gujarat but the sentence was awarded by a Mumbai court. The appropriate authority to consider remission was deemed to be the Maharashtra government, not Gujarat.
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Furthermore, the bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan deemed the May 2022 order directing Gujarat to handle the remission request as “secured by suppressing facts and fraud played on court.” Therefore, all actions taken based on that order were declared null and void.
This development marks a significant reversal of the convicts’ unexpected release on August 15, 2023, under Gujarat’s remission policy.
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The release had sparked nationwide outrage and deep distress for Bilkis Bano, who had termed it “one of the most gruesome crimes this country has ever seen.”
Bilkis, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots while fleeing communal violence.
Her three-year-old daughter and seven other family members were also murdered during the riots.