Bilkis Bano case: SC questions Gujarat, Centre on selective application of pre-mature release policy for remission of convicts

New Delhi [India], August 17 : The Supreme Court on Thursday while hearing a plea filed by Bilkis Bano against the release of 11 convicts who had gang-raped her and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots, queried the Gujarat and Central governments about the selective application of the pre-mature release policy for the remission of convicts who are serving jail terms.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the opportunity to reform and reintegrate into society should be given to every eligible convict.
“What about our jails being filled with undertrials? Why is the policy of remission applied selectively? Opportunity to reintegrate and reform should be given to every convict, not a few,” the bench asked.
It further enquired from Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Gujarat government, “Question is, not en masse, but where eligible, are all life sentence convicts after 14 years being given the benefit of remission?”
The hearing in the case will resume on August 24 at 2 pm.
Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court challenging the premature release of 11 convicts.
Some PILs were filed seeking directions to revoke the remission granted to 11 convicts.
The pleas were filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, whose General Secretary is Annie Raja, Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.
Gujarat government in its affidavit had defended remission granted to convicts saying they completed 14 years of sentence in prison and their “behaviour was found to be good”.
The State government had said it has considered the cases of all 11 convicts as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and the Central government also approved the release of convicts.
It is pertinent to note that the remission was not granted under the circular governing grant of remission to prisoners as part of the celebration of "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, it had said.
The affidavit stated, “State government considered all the opinions and decided to release 11 prisoners since they have completed 14 years and above in prisons and their behaviour was found to be good.”
The government had also questioned the locus standing of petitioners who filed the PIL challenging the decision saying they are outsiders to the case.
The pleas said they have challenged the order of competent authority of the government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them.
The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety), pleas stated.
The Gujarat government released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.
In March 2002 during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.