Bilkis Bano case: SC denies all 11 convicts further time for surrender

• The Supreme Court on January 8 quashed the Gujarat government order granting remission to 11 convicts
• Supreme Court had ordered all convicts to surrender by January 21

Hearing the case, Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said, “We have heard senior counsel and counsel for the applicants and the counsel for the non-applicants also. The reasons cited by applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail have no merit inasmuch as those reasons in no way prevent them from complying with our directions. Hence the miscellaneous applications are dismissed.”

The Supreme Court had recently cancelled the premature release granted to all 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case and ordered the convicts to surrender within two weeks, by January 21.

The Supreme Court on January 8 quashed the Gujarat government order granting remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. Observing the Gujarat government lacked the competence to grant remission to the convicts, the bench observed said the government of the state where the convicts are sentenced was the appropriate government to grant remission and not the government where the offence took place. The bench observed that the convict made misleading statements, suppressed facts while filing petition for remission.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.