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New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear tomorrow the petitions challenging the Gujarat government’s order allowing premature release of 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. Earlier, one of the convicts in the case, Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt, shared the stage with Dahod’s BJP MP Jaswant Singh Bhabhor and MLA Shailesh Bhabhor on Saturday. It was a government program.
Bilkis Bano case convict Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt was seen sitting next to BJP MP and MLA in this program related to government’s Har Ghar Jal Yojana. This program took place on March 25 in Karmadi village of Dahod district.
The Supreme Court will hear on March 27 the petitions challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case during the 2002 Gujarat riots. A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagaratna will hear petitions filed by several political and civil rights activists and a writ petition filed by Bano.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had on March 22 directed the urgent listing of the matter and agreed to set up a new bench to hear the petitions.
Significantly, on January 4, the matter came before the bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Bela M Trivedi, but Justice Trivedi recused himself from hearing the case without assigning any reason.
All the 11 convicts were given remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year.
Bilkis Bano in her pending writ petition has said that the state government passed a ‘mechanical order’ completely ignoring the law laid down by the Supreme Court. He said, “The premature release of the convicts in the famous Bilkis Bano case has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in several agitations across the country.”
It states, ‘When the country was celebrating its 76th Independence Day, all the convicts were released prematurely and they were publicly garlanded and honored and sweets were distributed.’
PILs filed by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Lal, former Lucknow University Vice-Chancellor Roop Rekha Verma and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra are pending with the apex court against the release of the convicts. .
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old at the time of the incident and was also five months pregnant. She was gang-raped and seven members of her family, including a three-year-old daughter, were murdered during the riots that broke out after a compartment fire in the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra.
