SC to hear pleas challenging premature release of convicts on Oct 11

The Supreme Court on Monday deferred to October 11 the final hearing on petitions challenging the premature release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riotsWe will have it on Wednesday a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said adding it will try to conclude hearing the matter the same dayThe top court said it has received written submissions of the petitioners which have been taken on recordList on October 11 2023 at 2 pm the bench which was scheduled to hear the rejoinder submissions of those opposed to the premature release of the convicts saidThe bench had on October 6 asked the counsel for the petitioners including Bilkis Bano to file their short written rejoinder argumentsWhile hearing the matter on September 20 the top court had asked whether convicts have a fundamental right to seek remissionIs the right to seek remission a fundamental right Will a petition lie under Article 32 that deals with citizens right to move the apex court directly if their fundamental rights are infringed of the Constitution the bench had asked a lawyer appearing for one of the 11 convicts The lawyer had acknowledged seeking remission was indeed not a fundamental right of the convictsThe victim and others also do not have the right to move the apex court directly by filing a petition under Article 32 as no fundamental right of theirs has been infringed either he had argued adding the victims have other statutory rights to challenge the grant of remissionWhile hearing the arguments on August 17 the top court had said state governments should not be selective in granting remission to convicts and the opportunity to reform and reintegrate with society should extend to every prisonerBesides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission granted to them by the Gujarat government several other PILs including one by CPIM leader Subhashini Ali independent journalist Revati Laul and former vicechancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma have challenged the relief TMC MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature releaseBilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra trainburning incident Her threeyearold daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riotsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever