Bilkis Bano case: Centre, Gujarat govt tell SC they may seek review of order

The Centre and the Gujarat government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that they may file a plea seeking a review of its March 27 order asking them to be ready with original files on the grant of remission to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano caseA bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna questioned the paroles granted to 11 convicts during their incarceration period and said the gravity of the offence could have been considered by the stateIt said A pregnant woman was gangraped and several people were killed You cannot compare victims case with standard section 302 murder cases Like you cannot compare apples with oranges similarly massacre cannot be compared with single murder Crimes are generally committed against society and the community Unequals cannot be treated equallyThe question is whether government applied its mind and what material formed the basis of its decision to grant remission the bench said adding Today it is Bilkis but tomorrow it can be anyone It may be you or me If you do not show your reasons for grant of remission then we will draw our own conclusionsThe bench posted the batch of pleas challenging the remission to the convicts in Bilkis Bano case for final disposal on May 2 and asked all the convicts who have not been served notices to file their repliesIt asked the Centre and the state to make its stand clear about filing of a review pleaOn March 27 terming Bilkis Banos gangrape and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots as a horrendous act the Supreme Court had asked the Gujarat government whether uniform standards as followed in other cases of murder were applied while granting remission to the 11 convicts in the caseIt had sought a response from the Centre Gujarat government and others on a plea filed by Bilkis Bano who was gangraped and seven members of her family were killed during the 2002 postGodhra riotsBano has challenged the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the caseAlso readSrinagarbound SpiceJet flight returns to Delhi airport due to false warning in cockpitAll the 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last yearThe top court is seized of PILs filed by CPIM leader Subhashini Ali Revati Laul an independent journalist Roop Rekha Verma who is a former vice chancellor of the Lucknow University and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convictsBano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident Her threeyearold daughter was among the seven family members killedThis 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