Bilkis Bano Case: SC To Constitute New Bench To Hear Plea Against Release Of 11 Convicts

The Supreme Court will hear Bilkis Bano’s plea over the sentence reduction of 11 defendants in the case on March 27. Bano was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, previously assured Bano, who was represented by her lawyer Shobha Gupta that a special bench will be established to hear the plea.

Earlier, on January 24, the hearing on Bano’s petition challenging the Gujarat government’s decision to commute the sentences of 11 gang-rape defendants was postponed because the judges concerned were part of a five-judge Constitution bench hearing a case involving passive euthanasia.

The gang rape survivor had filed a separate plea seeking a review of the top court’s May 13, 2022 ruling on a plea by a convict in addition to the plea challenging the release of the convicts.

Additionally, seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family were killed in the Gujarat riots in 2002.

The state government was instructed by the top court in its May 13, 2022 order to assess a convict’s plea for early release in accordance with its July 9, 1992 policy, which was in effect on the date of the conviction and decide it within a period of two months.

On August 15 of last year, the Gujarat government released all 11 convicts after granting them remission.

However, the Supreme Court rejected Bano’s review plea against the May 13, 2022 order in December of last year.