The Nepal Weekly 
January 9, 2024India’s top court has made void a 2022 Gujarat government order allowing the premature release of 11 men who were convicted for the gangrape of a pregnant Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano. The men will have to return to prison in a fortnight, the order said.
The convicts, who had also murdered 14 members of Bano’s family, were serving life sentences.
They were part of a Hindu mob that attacked Bano and her family during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.
Their release in August 2022 caused global outrage, especially after they were accorded a heroes’ welcome while appearing outside the Godhra jail, with relatives giving them sweets and touching their feet to show honour.
The Supreme Court heard several petitions, including one from Bano, challenging the convicts’ release. In her petition, Bano had said that the premature release of the men had “shaken the conscience of the society”. Calling it “one of the most gruesome crimes this country has ever seen”, she said the release had left her “shell-shocked and completely numb”.
Reading from the judgement on Monday, the two-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, said the state of Gujarat was “not competent” to pass the remission order in the case since the men were tried and convicted in a court in the state of Maharashtra.
“The government of the state where the offender is sentenced is the appropriate government to grant remission, not the government of the state where the offence took place,” she said.
The bench stated that since the government’s remission order had been nullified, the 11 convicts must return to prison within two weeks. “Justice encompasses not just the rights of the convicts but also the rights of the victims” and the “primary duty” of the court is to uphold justice and the rule of law, Justice Nagarathna said, adding that the “rule of law must be preserved unmindful of the ripples of the consequences”.
The judgement, being hailed as a landmark order, is bound to create some ripples, especially in Gujarat where the state has supported the release of the convicts.
Officials had said in court that the men – first convicted by a trial court in 2008 – had spent more than 14 years in jail and were released after considering other factors such as their age and good behaviour in prison. The state government said they had sought the federal government’s approval – which was granted by the home ministry, led by Amit Shah.
The approval had come despite opposition from a court and federal prosecutors who had said they should not be “released prematurely and no leniency may be shown” to them as their crime was “heinous, grave and serious”.
Days after her attackers were freed, Bano issued a statement calling the decision to free the men “unjust” and said it had “shaken” her faith in justice.
“When I heard that the convicts who had devastated my family and life had walked free, I was bereft of words. I am still numb,” she pointed out.
“How can justice for any woman end like this? I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system, and I was learning slowly to live with my trauma. The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice,” she wrote, appealing to the Gujarat government to “undo this harm” and “give me back my right to live without fear and in peace”. The attack on Bano and her family was one of the most horrific crimes during the riots, which began after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a fire on a passenger train in Godhra town. Blaming Muslims for starting the fire, Hindu mobs went on a rampage, attacking Muslim neighbourhoods. Over three days, more than 1,000 people died in the attack, most of them Muslims. The morning after the train fire, Bano – then 19 and pregnant with her second child – was visiting her parents in a
a village called Randhikpur near Godhra with her three-year-old daughter. (Agencies)
