SC questions Gujarat govt on premature release of Bilkis Bano rape case convicts

New Delhi (India), April 18, 2023: The Supreme Court has asked the Gujarat government to provide justification for its decision to prematurely release eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case. A bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna heard a plea challenging the release of the convicts and remarked that the gravity of the offense should have been considered by the state government.

During the hearing, the Centre and the Gujarat government indicated that they may seek a review of the March 27 order that asked them to be prepared with original files on the grant of remission to the convicts. The bench is scheduled to hear the case on May 2 and will also rule on the proposed review petition by the Gujarat government.

The apex court highlighted that even though the Central government had concurred with the state’s decision, it did not mean that the state was not required to apply its mind. The bench stressed that objective standards were necessary and that a massacre could not be compared with a single murder.

Bilkis Bano was gang-raped, and her three-year-old daughter was among 14 people killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, during the riots in the Limkheda taluka of Gujarat’s Dahod district. The eleven convicts were released on August 15 last year. In her plea, Bilkis expressed that the premature release of the convicts has shaken the conscience of society.