After the Supreme Court’s verdict quashing the remission granted to the 11 convicted men in a case of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members, the family said it felt “relieved but not victorious”.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday quashed the remission granted to the 11 men accused of gangraping Bano during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks.
The court held that the BJP-led Gujarat government abused its power, ruling that the Gujarat government was “not competent” to pass the remission order. The court clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced has the authority to decide the remission. In this case, the convicts were tried in Maharashtra.
The bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to the 11 convicted men. All of them were released on August 15, 2022, coinciding with 75 years of India’s Independence, dubbed as the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
A source close to Bano told IE, “The Supreme Court order has reinstated our faith in the judiciary and it gives us consolation that justice is alive… But, we cannot feel victorious yet as the convicts will prepare to apply for remission from the other state…”
“There is a doubt in our minds at the moment if the court will consider the plea of the convicts to remain outside prison while applying for remission. It seems like the fight is not over yet, until they are sent back to jail,” the source added.
After the verdict, some of Bilkis’ relatives burst firecrackers in Devgadh Baria town in Dahod district of Gujarat.
Bilkis was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members who were killed in the riots in Vadodara.
Petitioners welcome verdict
Speaking to Financial Express Online, the petitioners in the case welcomed the verdict, calling it a “fantastic judgment”.
Former director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and co-founder of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Jagdeep Chhokar said that the SC’s remarks on the Gujarat government in the judgment were “not complimentary”.
“The Honourable judge used the word ‘complicit’ in the judgment, which meant they (Gujarat government) were also accomplices. The judgment doesn’t show the Gujarat government good light. The words in the judgment speak for themselves,” Chhokar said.
In a strong indictment of the Gujarat government for ordering the premature release of the 11 convicts, Justice Nagarathna, while dictating the order, said, “It was the state of Maharashtra who could have only passed the remission orders…Respondent no 3 (convict) surreptitiously filed the plea before the Supreme Court. taking advantage of the May 13 order of this court. Other convicts also filed remission applications and Gujarat govt passed remission orders…”
“Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent no 3 (convict) 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 court ruled.
Another petitioner in the case, former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer (retired) Madhu Bhaduri told Financial Express Online that the top court upheld the rule of law as Justice Nagarathna, who authored the judgment, indicted the Gujarat government and quashed the remission granted to the 11 convicts.
“It has been a long wait, especially for Bilkis Bano. The most important thing about this judgment is that the judge has taken into account social conditions too,” Bhaduri said, and added, “Bilkis Bano has been suffering. She has been living underground and lives in fear. Society must not live in fear, and victims cannot live in fear.”
Hailing the “fantastic judgment”, the former Indian ambassador said that Justice Nagarathna kept alive the hope of victims of inequality, rape and violence. She also said that the judgment has given hope to victims who could go to court and get justice in a male-dominated society.
Criticising the garlanding of the 11 convicted men after their premature release in August last year, Bhaduri said, “I could not believe we are living in a country where this could happen. Because here are people who are being garlanded and a BJP leader also said that the convicted men have “good sanskaar (culture)”, this is the level our society has come down to. Hence, this judgment has given hope that the victim could go to court and get justice in a male-dominated society, where violence towards women is accepted and called “good sanskaar”.
Bhaduri’s “good sanskaar” reference was to remarks made by Gujarat BJP MLA CK Raulji who had said in August last year that the rapists in the Bilkis Bano case are Brahmins with “good sanskaar”.
Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover also said that the judgment has upheld the rule of law. “It is a scathing indictment of the state of Gujarat. The court has said that the law is clear. The appropriate government is the one where the accused are tried and sentenced, which in the Bilkis Bano case…was transferred by the Supreme Court to a special court in Maharashtra where they have been convicted by all superior courts. Therefore, the appropriate government as has been decided by the court was Maharashtra,” Grover told reporters.