Bilkis Bano Case: SC Junks Pleas By 11 Convicts Seeking More Time To Surrender

The eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, had moved the Supreme Court seeking extension for time given to them to surrender before the concerned jail authorities

The Supreme Court on Jan 8 quashed remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano's gang-rape case

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the applications filed by all the eleven Bilkis Bano case convicts seeking extention in time to surrender before jail authorities. The convicts will now have to return to jail by Sunday.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan heard applications filed by the convicts and noted that there was no reason seen to grant the extention.

The eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, had moved the top court seeking extension for time given to them to surrender before the concerned jail authorities citing domestic duties to health issues.

On Thursday, Senior Advocate V Chitambaresh mentioned the matter before Justice BV Nagarathna saying that the time to surrender is expiring on January 21 (Sunday).

Justice Nagarathna said that the bench (comprising herself and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan) has to be constituted to hear the applications. 

The court has issued directions to the Registry to seek orders from the CJI DY Chandrachud for constitution of the bench tomorrow to take up the applications.

Supreme Court agreed to list their plea after the convicts’ lawyer mentioned their plea for urgent hearing as the time to surrender is expiring on January 21. 

The Supreme Court on January 8 quashed remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano's gang-rape case and nullified its May 2022 judgement that had directed the Gujarat Government to consider the remission applications of the convicts. The court held that not only the judgemnet was "bad in law" but also obtained by "fraud" as one of the petitioner (also a convict) had suppressed crucial facts and made misleading statements. The court had directed all the 11 convicts to report back to concerned jail authorities within two weeks.

The court also held that the writ petition that challenged the Gujarat government's power to grant remission was maintainable as the state of Gujarat usurped the powers of state of Maharashtra while granting remission. 

Bilkis Bano Rasool was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. Seven members of her family including her three-year-old daughter were killed in the riots.

In 2008, all the 11 convicts were awarded life imprisonment by a special court in Mumbai and the decision was upheld by a division bench of the Bombay High Court in 2017.