Bilkis Bano case | Supreme Court quashes Gujarat’s premature release of convicts

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the order of premature release granted by the State of Gujarat in August 2022 to 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family during the 2002 riots. The court held that the convicts were tried and sentenced in Maharashtra. It was Maharashtra, and not Gujarat, which had to consider and remit their sentence.

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the order of premature release granted by the State of Gujarat in August 2022 to 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family during the 2002 riots.

The court ordered them to report back to jail in two weeks.

“Courts have to dispense justice and not see that justice is dispensed with,” Justice B.V. Nagarathna, heading a Bench also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, distinguished.

The court held that the convicts were tried and sentenced in Maharashtra. It was Maharashtra, and not Gujarat, which had to consider and remit their sentence.

Justice Nagarathna, in a detailed pronouncement of the judgment which spanned nearly an hour in open court, said Gujarat “usurped” the power of Maharashtra to pass an order of remission in favour of the convicts.

“We strike down the remission on the ground of usurpation of power. Gujarat had no jurisdiction,” the court held.

Justice Nagarathna said Gujarat was not the “appropriate government” under Section 432(7)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure which covered the subject of power to suspend and remit sentence.