India

SC to form special bench to hear Bilkis Bano’s plea against release of rapists

A group of convicts who were released in Bilkis Banoo rape case by Gujarat Govt being garlanded by Hindu Right-wing members in August 2022.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat violence, against the remission of sentence of 11 rapists in the case.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, that the new bench will be formed, PTI reported.

Gupta mentioned the matter for urgent hearing and said that a new bench needs to be constituted.

“I will have a bench constituted. Will look at it this evening,” the CJI said.

Earlier, on January 24, the hearing on Bano’s plea challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the gang-rape case by the Gujarat government could not be held in the top court as the judges concerned were hearing a matter related to passive euthanasia as part of a five-judge Constitution bench.

Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022 order on a plea by a convict, the news agency report said.

Seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family were also killed during the 2002 Gujarat violence.

In its May 13, 2022 order, the apex court had asked the state government to consider the plea of a convict for premature release in terms of its policy of July 9, 1992 which was applicable on the date of conviction and decide it within a period of two months.

All 11 rapists were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, last year.

Bano’s review plea against the May 13, 2022 order, however, was dismissed by the top court in December last year.

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