The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Aparna Bhat against the grant of remission and consequent release of the convicts in the case.
“We are only challenging the remission and not the Supreme Court order. The Supreme Court order is fine, My Lords. We are challenging the principles on the basis of which remission was granted,” Sibal said.
The apex court had earlier asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea of remission.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to revoke the remission of the 11 convicts involved in the Bilkis Bano case was filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo Member Subhashini Ali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Revathi Laul and Roop Rekha Verma.
The women activists in their PIL said the convicts should not be released as it is a case that involves gangrape and murder.
Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, in Dahod during violence that broke out across the state after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 passengers, mainly 'kar sewaks', were burnt to death.
On January 21, 2008, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Mumbai sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment on the charges of gang rape, unlawful assembly, and murder of seven family members of Bilkis Bano under various sections of the Indian Penal Code . Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.
(With PTI inputs)