Bilkis Bano: Review against judgment on remission policy dismissed

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed by Bilkis Bano challenging the apex court's May 13 judgment, which held that remission of accused, convicted for gangrape and multiple murders, should be considered as per the policy existing at the time of conviction in Gujarat, where the crime was committed.

A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath dismissed the review petition filed by Bano through advocate Shobha Gupta.

In the review petition, Bano said that Maharashtra's remission policy should be applied in the present case, instead of the 1992 remission policy of Gujarat since the trial had happened in Maharashtra.

The top court's judgment came on a petition filed by one of the convicts, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah seeking direction to Gujarat to consider his application for premature release under the 1992 policy, which was existing at the time of his conviction.

Bano has also filed a separate petition against the release of 11 men convicted of gang raping her in the 2002 Gujarat riots, and also accused of multiple murders, saying the release of all the convicts came as a shock not only to the petitioner, to her grown-up daughters, to her family, but also to the society at large, nationally, and internationally.

The plea said: "The premature release of all the convicts came as a shock not only to the petitioner, to her grown up daughters, to her family, but also to the society at large, nationally and internationally, and the society across segments had shown their anger, disappointment, distrust and protest to the clemency shown by the Government by releasing criminals like the 11 convicts of the case."

On December 13, Supreme Court judge Justice Bela M. Trivedi recused from hearing the petition filed by Bano.

The matter is likely to be listed before another bench of the apex court for hearing.

Bano said she was extremely-extremely hurt, disturbed, and full of dejection with the early release and sudden and traumatising presence and existence of 11 of her rapists who brutally gang raped her while she was five months pregnant and inflicted on her person and soul extreme level of violence and brutality.