Bilkis Bano Rape Convict Moves SC Calling Verdict Cancelling Remission Judicially Improper

Bilkis Bano gangrape convict Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, who was also pulled up by the Supreme Court for misleading the court to obtain remission, has challenged the verdict cancelling remission.

A convict in Bilkis Bano gangrape case has moved the Supreme Court against the January 8 verdict by the top court that cancelled remission granted to the 11 convicts. The Supreme Court had quashed the remission granted to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and nullified its May 2022 judgment that had directed the Gujarat government to consider the remission applications of the convicts. The court held that not only the judgment was "bad in law" but also obtained by "fraud" as one of the petitioners also a convict Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, had suppressed crucial facts and made misleading statements in court.

Recently, the same convict Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, who was also pulled up by the apex court for misleading the top court, has moved Supreme Court challenging the verdict cancelling remission, the Bar and Bench reported.

According to the report, Shah has filed a petition contending that cancelling his remission and the re-imprisonment of all eleven convicts was "judicially improper". He has challenged the January 8 verdict by a division bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, saying that it was incorrect in law for on division bench to overrule another division bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath. Shah contends that the matter should be heard by a larger bench as to division benches are in disagreement.

Radheshyam Shah has also sought bail until the top court clarifies which of the division bench verdict should prevail, the report said.

In May 2022, the division bench led by Justice Rastogi-led bench had held that Gujarat (and not the Maharashtra government) was the appropriate government to decide on remission applications of rape convicts. Following this verdict, the Gujarat government granted remission to the 11 convicts. 

This decision was overruled by the division bench led by Justice Nagarathna in January 2024. The top court 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.