SPECIAL BENCH FOR BILKIS BANO CASE-SC

A particular bench has been shaped by the Supreme courtroom to listen to Bilkis Bano’s plea in opposition to the discharge of the convicts.

CJI DY Chandrachud mentioned on Wednesday “I’ll have a bench constituted and can look into the matter this night”. He would hear the petitions difficult the early launch of the 11 convicts https://asianatimes.com/banos-petition-of-rape-prisoners-gets-denied/accused within the Bilkis Bano gangrape and homicide case of 2002.

Right this moment morning, CJI Chandrachud made this assertion after advocate Shoba Gupta raised the matter of Bilkis Bano’s case to carry it within the consideration of the CJI.

Gupta advised the bench additionally comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala that the matter was presently listed earlier than Justice Ajay Rastogi who was sitting together with Justice Bela M Trivedi, who had recused from listening to it. She urged the courtroom to arrange a particular bench to listen to it.

CJI Chandrachud responded by agreeing to the request made by advocate Gupta and mentioned he would listing it for the listening to as early as potential. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-agrees-to-constitute-special-bench-to-hear-bilkis-banos-plea-against-remission-to-convicts-in-gang-rape-case/articleshow/98898330.cms

Who’s Bilkis Bano?

The Godhra prepare burning incident of 2002 didn’t solely carry communal violence however a extra extreme incident that created horror all throughout India. Bilkis Bano was a 21-year-old and five-month pregnant woman was brutally gangraped. Her seven relations together with her five-month-old child was additionally killed through the riots of 2002.  

On Feburary 27, 2002 violence erupted in Gujrat when a prepare coming from Ayodhya to Sabarmati was burnt in Gujrat’s Godhra and fifty-nine karsevaks had been killed.

On March 3, a mib of 20-20 armed with sticks and swords attacked the 5-month pregnant Bilkis Bano alongside together with her toddler daughter. Whereas Bano alongside together with her household was searching for shelter, she was gangraped by 11 males and seven of her relations had been killed on the spot.

After the general public outrage, the Supreme Courtroom ordered the CBI probe into this horrifying incident. The accused had been arrested in 2004 in Allahabad the place a trial started in opposition to them.

The case was transferred to the Bombay excessive courtroom when Bano confirmed apprehensions that the proof might be harmed and tampered.

It was six years later, 2008, that the 11 convicts got a life imprisonment by Particular Central Bureau of Investigation. The convicts had been charged with gangrape and  homicide of seven members of Bano’s household. The accused had been acquitted on account of lack of proof out of which one had died through the trial.

Why had been the convicts launched?

In 2022, the Bombay excessive courtroom had upheld their conviction and launched all of the 11 convicts. Not solely they had been launched by the Bombay excessive courtroom but additionally welcomed with garland.

They had been launched after the Gujrat authorities underneath its remission coverage handed an order to launch them.

For 15 years the eleven convicts served in jail after which one among them approached the SC with a plea for his or her untimely launch. The apex courtroom requested the Gujrat authorities to look into this matter after which the convicts had been let out.

In keeping with Sujal Mayatra, “A committee which was shaped just a few months again had taken an unanimous choice in favour of remission of all of the 11 convicts within the case. This was advisable by the state authorities after which we received the order to launch them”.

 After the discharge of the convicts in 2022 final yr, Bilikis in her plea mentioned that that is “one of the vital grotesque crimes this nation can ever see” she added that the early launch of the convicts got here as a shock not solely to her, however to her grown-up daughters, household, and to society at giant, nationally and internationally.  Bilkis added their untimely launch had “relived” her “trauma”.