New Delhi, January 05, 2023 (PPI-OT):Supreme Court of India judge Justice Bela M. Trivedi recused herself from hearing a clutch of petitions against the release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M. Trivedi took up the petitions filed by Communist Party of India Marxists (CPI-M) leader Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, Lucknow University’s former Vice Chancellor Roop Rekha Verma, and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, challenging the release of the convicts.

Advocate Shobha Gupta, representing Bilkis Bano, contended that earlier Justice Trivedi had recused herself from hearing her client’s plea against the release of convicts. At this juncture, the judges on the bench had a brief conversation. Justice Rastogi said that if Justice Trivedi had already recused from hearing the victim’s plea, she would like to recuse from hearing this matter also.

He added that Bilkis Bano’s plea will be taken up as the lead matter and the rest of the writ petitions would be tagged along with it when the bench sits in a different combination of judges. Justice Trivedi, last month, had opted out from hearing a plea filed by Bilkis Bano against the release of 11 convicts. Like the previous occasion, no reason was assigned for recusal.

In the plea, Bilkis Bano said release of all the convicts came as a shock not only to her, to her grown-up daughters, to her family, but also to the society at large, nationally, and internationally. The 11 persons, all members of Hindutva organizations, were convicted for gang-raping Bilkis Bano and killing her seven family members including her minor daughter during anti-Muslim riots in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002.

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