Supreme Court rejects Gujarat govt plea to erase criticism in Bilkis Bano order

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the Gujarat government’s plea seeking a review of the order setting aside the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case of 2002.

The top court’s January 8 order had made harsh observations against the state for being “complicit” and “acting in tandem” with the accused — statements that the Gujarat government wanted reviewed and expunged.

Rejecting the review plea , a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said: “Having carefully gone through the review petitions, the order under challenge and the papers annexed therewith, we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record or any merit in the review petitions, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned.” The judges also turned down the request for an open-court hearing.

Along with the state’s plea, the court dismissed the review petition of one of the convicts, Ramesh Rupabhai Chandana, challenging the verdict that set aside Gujarat government’s remission order passed in August 2022 and directed the 11 convicts to surrender. The court held that the Maharashtra government was the competent authority to decide on remission as the trial in the Bilkis Bano case shifted to Maharashtra on a direction passed by the top court in 2004.

The state filed its review petition in February objecting to the remarks made against it claiming they were contrary to the record. Terming it as an “error apparent on the face of the record”, which justifies review of a top court’s decision, the state sought these remarks to be removed.

The review plea said, “The extreme observation made by this Court that the state of Gujarat ‘acted in tandem and was complicit with accused’ is not only highly unwarranted and against the record of the case, but has caused serious prejudice to the state of Gujarat.”

The January 8 judgment recorded these remarks while discussing the inaction of the Gujarat government to challenge an earlier decision of the top court on May 13, 2022. In that decision, the top court had directed Gujarat to process the remission plea of one of the convicts — Radheyshyam Bhagwandas Shah — without being informed that the same accused had earlier approached the Gujarat high court, which held that the Maharashtra government will be the competent authority to decide on grant of premature release.

The January 8 judgment, which set aside the May 2022 order to be “per incuriam” as it was obtained without disclosing full facts to the court, said: “The state of Gujarat never sought for the review of the order of this court dated May 13, 2022 by bringing to the notice of this Court that it was contrary to Section 432(7) CrPC and judgments of this court. Instead, the state of Gujarat has acted in tandem and was complicit with what the petitioner (Radheyshyam) had sought before this Court…the exercise of discretion and the passing of the impugned orders of remission in the case of respondent Nos.3 to 13 (convicts) was an instance of usurpation of power.”

Bano was 21, and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped as she tried to flee with her family to safety during the 2002 riots in Gujarat. The 11 convicts also killed seven members of her family including her three-year old daughter. The trial of the case took place at Mumbai and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the case.

A Mumbai court convicted and sentenced the 11 people to life imprisonment in January 2008, and their appeals were dismissed by the Bombay high court in 2017.