Bilkis Bano will need to have heaved a sigh of aid right now (8 January) because the Supreme Courtroom quashed the Gujarat authorities’s order granting remission to 11 convicts within the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape and homicide case.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan in its order stated that the Gujarat Authorities had no jurisdiction to entertain the appliance for remission of the convicts within the Bilkis Bano case, including that the suitable authorities to resolve on remission is the state inside whose territorial limits the accused are sentenced and never the place the crime is dedicated or the accused are imprisoned.
The apex court docket additional acknowledged that the Gujarat authorities’s remission order was with out software of thoughts, with the justices requested whether or not “heinous crimes against women permit remission” no matter religion she could observe or creed she could belong to.
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Her household, in line with sources talking to Indian Specific, was relieved with the judgment however but cautious. A supply near Bilkis informed Indian Specific, “The SC order has reinstated our faith in the judiciary and it gives us consolation that justice is alive… But, we cannot feel victorious yet as the convicts will prepare to apply for remission from the other state… There is a doubt in our minds at the moment if the court will consider the plea of the convicts to remain outside prison while applying for remission. It seems like the fight is not over yet, until they are sent back to jail.”
The order comes after the Gujarat authorities had in August 2022 launched 11 males convicted of Bilkis’ gang rape and the killing of her household, inflicting a furore in society and leaving Bilkis numb and speechless.
We take a better have a look at what precisely was the case, how had been these males let off and what adopted.
Who’s Bilkis Bano?
Gujarat had turned violent after the Sabarmati prepare was burnt in Godhra on 27 February 2002. Fifty-nine karsevaks had been killed within the prepare.
Fearing the outbreak of violence, a then five-month pregnant Bilkis Bano fled from Randhikpur, her village, along with her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and 15 different members of the family.
They took refuge within the Chhaparvad district. Nevertheless, on 3 March, they had been attacked by about 20-30 folks armed with sickles, swords, and sticks. Among the many attackers had been the 11 accused males.
Bilkis, her mom, and three different ladies had been raped and brutally assaulted. Of the 17-member group of Muslims from Radhikpur village, eight had been discovered useless, six had been lacking. Solely Bilkis, a person, and a three-year-old survived the assault. As per a number of stories, Bilkis regained consciousness three hours after the incident and after borrowing garments from an adivasi girl made her technique to the Limkheda police station to register a criticism.
Bilkis was taken to a public hospital for medical examination solely after she reached the Godhra aid camp. Her case was taken up by the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) and Supreme Courtroom, which ordered an investigation by the CBI.
What occurred within the Bilkis Bano case?
The accused within the case had been arrested in 2004 and the trial started in Ahmedabad. Nevertheless, after Bilkis expressed apprehensions that witnesses may very well be harmed and the proof collected by the CBI tampered with, the apex court docket transferred the case to Mumbai.
On 21 January 2008, the Particular CBI Courtroom sentenced 11 accused to life imprisonment on the costs of conspiring to rape a pregnant girl, homicide and illegal meeting beneath the Indian Penal Code. The court docket acquitted seven different accused for lack of proof. One of many accused had died throughout the trial.
The court docket held that Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, and Naresh Kumar Mordhiya (deceased) had raped Bilkis, whereas Shailesh Bhatt had killed her daughter, Saleha, by “smashing” her on the bottom.
Others who had been convicted are Radheshyam Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Vohania, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Nitesh Bhatt, Ramesh Chandana, and Head Constable Somabhai Gori.
In accordance with Indian Specific, Decide Salvi termed Bilkis’ “courageous deposition as the turning point in the case.”
Nearly 10 years after this, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom, in Could 2017, upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 11 folks within the gang rape case.
In 2019, the Supreme Courtroom awarded compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Bilkis — the primary such order in a case associated to the 2002 riots. “It is very apparent that what should not have happened has happened and the state has to give compensation,” the apex court docket bench of the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, had stated.
How did the convicts get early launch?
On 15 August 2022, the 11 convicts had been launched from Godhra sub-jail, with the Gujarat authorities citing their good behaviour as the explanation for his or her launch.
This transfer got here after one of many convicts, Radheshyam Shah, had earlier approached the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom in search of remission of the sentence beneath sections 432 and 433 of the Code of Prison Process. The excessive court docket dismissed his plea whereas observing that the “appropriate government” to take a choice about his remission is Maharashtra, and never Gujarat.
Shah then filed a plea within the Supreme Courtroom, pleading that he had been in jail for 15 years and 4 months with out remission as of 1 April 2022.
The apex court docket directed the Gujarat authorities to look into the problem of remission of his sentence following which the federal government fashioned a committee, stated Panchmahal Collector Sujal Mayatra, who headed the committee.
“A committee formed a few months back took a unanimous decision in favour of remission of all the 11 convicts in the case. The recommendation was sent to the state government, and we received the orders for their release,” stated Mayatra.
When requested concerning the launch, Gujarat Further Chief Secretary, Residence, Raj Kumar, had informed information company PTI that the Supreme Courtroom had requested the federal government to think about early launch of those 11 convicts beneath the state’s remission coverage which was in impact after they had been pronounced responsible within the case by the trial court docket.
“These 11 persons were convicted by a special court in Mumbai in 2008. At the time of conviction, Gujarat was following a remission policy which came into effect in 1992. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, it directed us to decide about the release under the 1992 policy, because that was prevalent when conviction came in 2008,” Kumar informed PTI.
What did the SC rule now and what comes subsequent?
The discharge of the convicts brought about an enormous hue and cry, with Bilkis approaching the Supreme Courtroom in November 2022 difficult the ‘premature’ launch of them, saying it had “shaken the conscience of society.”
Apart from the petition filed by Bilkis Bano, a number of different PILs had challenged the rapists’ early launch within the Supreme Courtroom.
And on Monday (8 January), the apex court docket handed down a 100-page judgment during which it struck down the remission orders to the convicts. The bench stated, “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.” Moreover, the highest court docket nullified its 13 Could 2022 order of one other bench asking the Gujarat authorities to think about a remission plea of one of many convicts because the order was obtained by “playing fraud on the court” and by suppressing materials info.
The Supreme Courtroom has now ordered the lads to return to jail inside two weeks.
With inputs from businesses