The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by Bilkis Bano to review its May judgment which allowed the Gujarat government to consider and prematurely release 11 convicts serving life sentences for gangraping her and killing seven members of her family during the 2002 riots.
Back in August while releasing the convicts, the Gujarat government had said it relied on its old remission policy of 1992 to approve their applications for remission of the sentence and not the current policy of 2014.
Ms. Bano’s petition had wanted the top court to reconsider its judgment from earlier this year which the Gujarat government relied on to apply the State’s Premature Release Policy of 1992 while deciding pleas made by the convicts for early release.
In its May 13 judgment, a Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Ajay Rastogi had concluded that Gujarat was the “appropriate government” under Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to decide the remission of the convicts in the case and not Maharashtra, where the trial took place. It also directed Gujarat to consider the premature release application using the old policy that was prevalent at the time of conviction in 2008.
The fresh dismissal of Ms. Bano’s review petition comes from a Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath.
While it was the apex court’s May judgment that the State of Gujarat used to validate the release of the convicts, several judgments of the Supreme Court, most recently in April this year, have underscored that a State cannot exercise its remission powers arbitrarily.
The court, in State of Haryana versus Mohinder Singh, had held that the grant of remission should be “informed, fair and reasonable”. The court had in Laxman Naskar versus Union of India laid down some questions which should feature in the State’s mind before deciding on remission. One of these is whether the offence is an individual act of crime that does not affect the society.
Notably, while hearing other petitions challenging the release of the 11 convicts, the Court had directed Gujarat to submit an affidavit. The State government’s affidavit showed that the Special Judge and the CBI in Mumbai had opposed the premature release of the 11 convicts but authorities in Gujarat and the Home Ministry recommended it.
The refusal of the top court to review its key judgment brings a setback in Ms. Bano’s case, which had generated renewed furore in August from various quarters when the convicts were released. As this editorial in The Hindu pointed out in August, any decision on remission should be linked to the convict’s expression of regret and some promise of reform. The release of the 11 persons ahead of then pending State elections in Gujarat raised questions about whether the decision was a political consideration. Besides, the sight of the released convicts being garlanded on their release was not to be easy on the country’s conscience.
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