Bilkis Bano Case: Supreme Court Dismisses All 11 Convicts' Applications Seeking Extension Of Time To Surrender

The Supreme Court today dismissed applications filed by all the eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano case seeking further time to surrender before jail authorities. The court said the reason cited by the convicts for the extension of time lacked merits. The convicts will have to surrender by January 21, the original date put for the by the top court as per its January 8 judgement.

“The reason cited by applicants seeking postponement of surrender and report back to jail have no merit in as much as those reasons in no way prevent them from complying with pour directions”, said the Court.

The Supreme Court on January 8 overruled the Gujarat government’s decision to release 11 convicts who gangraped Bilkis Bano and was involved in the murder of 14 members of her family during 2002 Gujarat riot. The court noted that, “Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the application for remission or pass the orders as it was not the appropriate government”.

In 2008, a trial court in Mumbai had sentenced 11 convicts for life. The Gujarat government on August 15, 2022 released the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under its 1992 remission and premature release policy. One among the convict, Radheshyam Shah, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by CBI court in Mumbai in 2008, approached Supreme Court after completing 15 years and four months in jail.

The bench comprising of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that its May 2022 order directing Gujarat government to decide the remission was secured by suppressing facts and fraud played on court. “The SC order of May 13, 2022 directing Gujarat govt to decide the remission as per 1992 policy being a nullify, all the proceedings in pursuance of the order stands vitiated,” the court pronounced.

Responding to the verdict, Bilkis Bano, in a statement issued through her lawyer Shobha Gupta expressed profound relief, stating that the court’s decision marked a new beginning for her. “Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again,” Bilkis Bano said.