New Delhi, December 17, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Indian Supreme Court continuing with its practice of denying justice to the members of minority communities dismissed today the review petition filed by gang-rape victim Bilkis Bano. Bilkis Bano had filed a petition challenging the release of 11 Hindutva goons who were convicted of gang-raping her and killing her family members during the anti-Muslim riots in the Indian state of Gujarat riots in 2002. The convicts were granted remission by the state government and released on August 15 this year.
The Supreme Court refused to entertain submissions seeking an early setting up of a fresh bench to hear Bilkis Bano’s plea challenging the remission of the sentence of the 11 convicts. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha was urged by lawyer Shobha Gupta, appearing for Bano, that another bench needed to be constituted to hear the case. “The writ (petition) will be listed. Please, do not keep mentioning the same thing again and again. It is very irritating,” the CJI (Chief Justice of India) said.
Supreme Court judge Bela M Trivedi on Tuesday recused herself from hearing a plea filed by Bano. The CJI will now have to set up a fresh bench, of which Justice Trivedi will not be a part, to hear Bano’s case. The Hindutva goons had gang-raped Bilkis Bano during the riots. She was 21 years old and five months pregnant when the crime on her was committed. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were also killed by the Hindu extremists.
A special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21, 2008, sentenced the 11 persons to life imprisonment. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Indian Supreme Court. The convicted persons in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their premature release under its remission policy.
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