Earlier on Monday, the apex court slammed the state government for granting remission to the convicts and said the Gujarat government was "complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts."
The Supreme Court in January had overturned the Gujarat government’s decision to grant early release to 11 convicts in the 2002 gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the communal riots in the state.
While hearing the case on Monday, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said it failed to understand why the state of Gujarat did not file a review petition against the judgment dated May 13, 2022, which directed the Gujarat government to consider the plea of a convict for premature release as per the State policy of July 9, 1992, PTI reported.
In 1992, the Gujarat government introduced a new remission policy. According to this policy, requests from convicts sentenced to life imprisonment, who had completed at least 14 years of their sentence, could be reviewed. However, favorable opinions from the Jail Advisory Board were required for such requests to be considered.
"Taking advantage of the May 13, 2022 order of this court, other convicts also filed remission applications and the Gujarat government passed remission orders. Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent No. 3 (convict Radheshyam Shah) in this case. This court was misled by suppressing facts. Use of power by Gujarat was only an usurpation of power by the State," the bench had said, as per the PTI report.
The Supreme Court also invalidated a previous order issued by another bench on May 13, 2022, directing the Gujarat government to review a remission plea from one of the convicts. The court determined that the order was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts.
"If the convicts can circumvent the consequences of their conviction, peace and tranquillity in the society will be reduced to a chimaera. It is the duty of this Court to correct arbitrary orders at the earliest and to retain the foundation of trust of the public," the court said, reported PTI.
The bench said the Gujarat government usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government by acting in furtherance of the judgment dated May 13, 2022, which in "our opinion is a nullity".
It was the State of Maharashtra that was the appropriate government to consider the remission and it was this very apprehension that led this court to transfer the trial out of the State, it said.
"The exercise of power by the State of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation of power and abuse of power. This is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission," the bench said, the PTI report added.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.
All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.