Nearly five months after the Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government to provide 2002 riots victim Bilkis Bano ₹50 lakh in compensation, a house and a job to tide over the “devastation” of her family, the court learned on Monday that the State is yet to budge on the judicial order from the highest court.
“Why have you not paid her? Why have you not paid?” Chief Justice Gogoi asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government.
Mr. Mehta said that the State may be filing a review.
On April 23, the court, in a detailed decision, described the tragedy of Ms. Bano’s past. The court had noted how her infant daughter was “smashed” against the wall in their house before her very own eyes. Ms. Bilkis was herself pregnant when she was gangraped by the mob. Seven members of her family were also killed by the mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad on March 3, 2002.
In April, the court ordered the Gujarat government to pay her the compensation, provide a job and a house in two weeks. But nothing had come out of it.
The Chief Justice asked Mr. Mehta whether the April order would at least be made good now considering the “peculiar facts” of the case.
Mr. Mehta asked for four weeks for the government to arrange employment for Ms. Bano. The CJI decided on two.
“You (Gujarat) don’t need even two weeks,” the CJI addressed the Gujarat side.
The lawyer for Ms. Bilkis urged the court to keep the case pending for the time being.
In April, the CJI had said “in today’s world, money is the best healer. We do not know whether it can heal all, but what else can we do for her...”
The court had also ordered the Gujarat government to withdraw the pension benefits of three police officers involved in the Bilkis Bano case probe. The Bombay High Court had upheld the life imprisonment sentence of 11 accused in the gangrape case.
For the past nearly two decades, Ms. Bano had taken up the matter with the local police, an NGO, the CBI and the courts to get justice for herself.
