Supreme Court’s decision, the culprits of Bilkis will go to jail again

In the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court has reversed the decision of the Gujarat government and canceled the remission of sentence of the culprits. After the decision of the Supreme Court, the culprits will now have to go to jail again. The Supreme Court said in its decision that where the criminal has been tried and sentenced, only the state can decide to pardon the convicts. The Supreme Court said that the Gujarat government cannot decide on remission of sentence of the culprits, rather the Maharashtra government will decide on it. It is noteworthy that the Bilkis Bano case was heard in Maharashtra.

The court also said that the Gujarat government’s decision to release the convicts was an abuse of power. The Supreme Court has ordered all the 11 convicts to surrender before the jail authority in the next two weeks. Gujarat government had waived the punishment of 11 accused of Bilkis Bano gangrape. This decision of the Gujarat government was challenged in the Supreme Court, on which the Supreme Court gave its decision today. A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjwal Bhuiyan heard the case and reserved its verdict for October 12, 2023.

Under the amnesty policy of the Gujarat government, in the year 2022, the punishment of the culprits of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven members of her family was waived off and they were released from jail. However, now after the decision of the Supreme Court, the culprits will have to go to jail again. These convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by the special CBI court in 2008, which was also approved by the Bombay High Court.

A convict sentenced to life imprisonment has to spend 14 years in jail. After that, considering the nature of the crime, behavior in prison and other things, reduction in sentence or release can be considered. Bilkis Bano gang rape convict has spent 15 years in jail. After which the culprits had requested for concession in punishment. On which the Gujarat government released these 11 convicts from jail under its amnesty policy.

Two petitions were filed in the Supreme Court on 30 November 2022 against this decision of the Gujarat government. In the first petition, challenging the release of the culprits, there was a demand to send them back to jail. In the second petition, a demand was made to reconsider the order given by the Supreme Court in May, in which the Supreme Court had said that the Gujarat government will decide on the release of the culprits.

During the hearing in the Supreme Court on the petitions, the Center and the Gujarat government had defended the decision to release the convicts and said that the convicts have not committed the rarest of rare crimes and they should be given a chance to reform. On this, the court questioned that why the benefit of relaxation in release was given only to the convicts of Bilkis Bano?

Why were other prisoners not given such relaxation? The Supreme Court also asked whether the culprits have a fundamental right to apologise? On this, the lawyer of the culprits admitted that the culprits do not have the fundamental right to apologise. During the 2002 riots in Gujarat, a furious mob entered Bilkis Bano’s house and killed seven people. During this time Bilkis Bano was gang raped.