Guwahati: The Supreme Court decided to take up a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) contesting the release of the 11 prisoners from the Bilkis Bano case on Tuesday.
According to reports, a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana questioned the attorneys about if the release was based on a decision made by the supreme court.
The advocates Kapil Sibal and Aparna Bhat, who mentioned the petition in the court, said the petitioner is not questioning the SC’s order however, seeking to know the basis on which remission was granted to the 11 convicts during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
The Gujarat government was reportedly given permission to petition for the remission policy in place at the time of the accused’s 2008 conviction by a bench presided over by Justice Ajay Rastogi.
The CJI agreed to look into the situation and promised that the PIL will soon be scheduled before the proper bench.
The petition was filed by the members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma.
On August 15, the Gujarati government approved the release of all 11 of the case’s defendants from the Godhra sub-jail under its policy of remission.
In 2008, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai gave the case’s defendants a life sentence. They had been accused of killing seven members of Bano’s family and raping Bano in a group. The Bombay High Court later upheld their conviction.
It should be mentioned that on March 3, 2002, during the post-Gujarat riots, a mob attacked Bilkis Bano’s family in Randhikpur hamlet in Limkheda taluka of Dahod district. At the time of the gang rape, Bano was five months pregnant. Seven members of her family were also slaughtered in front of her.