SC to consider listing of review plea of Bilkis Bano

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would consider early listing by circulation a plea seeking review of its earlier order by which it had asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea for remission of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape caseA bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Dipankar Datta took note of the submissions of lawyer Shobha Gupta that the review plea is yet to be listedIt will come up by circulation I will have it posted early There is a date I will check the CJI told the lawyer who said the tentative date was shown as December 5As per procedures review pleas against apex court judgements are decided in chambers by circulation by the judges who were part of the judgement under reviewBesides the review Bano who was gangraped and seven members of her family killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots has filed a separate petition challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the case by the state government saying their premature release has shaken the conscience of societyAlso Read Supreme Court to hear Bilkis Banos plea against release of convicts on Dec 13The plea is listed for hearing on December 13 before a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M TrivedThe gangrape survivor has sought a review of the apex courts May 13 2022 order on a plea by a convictThe top court had asked the state government to consider the plea for premature release of the convicts in terms of its policy of July 9 1992 about deciding a remission petition within a period of two monthsAll the 11 convicts were granted remission by the state government and released on August 15 this yearThe review plea said Bilkis Bano was not made a party to the petition by a convict who along with others was released under the states remission policy which is not in forceIn view of the development that the policy dated July 9 1992 stood cancelled vide circular dated May 08 2003 of State of Gujarat it was necessary to be examined whether still the policy dated 09071992 would be the relevant policy for remission application of the convicts to be considered if at all the State of Gujarat is the appropriate Government under section 432 CrPC the review plea saidThe top court is already seized of PILs filed by CPIM leader Subhashini Ali Revati Laul an independent journalist and Roop Rekha Verma who is a former vice chancellor of the Lucknow University and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convictsBilkis Bano 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 killedThe investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme CourtA special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21 2008 sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven members of her familyTheir conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme CourtThe 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra subjail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy They had completed more than 15 years in jailThis 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