New Delhi, Dec 13, 2022: Supreme Court Justice Bela M Trivedi has withdrawn herself from hearing a plea filed by Bilkis Bano that challenged the premature release of 11 convicts who had gangraped her and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots.
When the bench consisting of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the matter for hearing, the former stated that his sister judge will not like to hear the case.
“List the matter before a bench in which one of us is not a member,” the bench headed by Justice Rastogi ordered.
In addition to challenging the premature release of the 11 convicts, Bano had also filed a review petition against the May order of the Supreme Court which let the Gujarat government to apply the 1992 remission Rules for release of the convicts.
According to procedure, review pleas against top court judgements are decided in chambers by circulation between the judges who were part of the judgement under review.
The 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, had been released by the Gujarat government on August 15. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat during the time of their conviction in 2008.
