Can't be emotionally overwhelmed, we'll go by law: SC on Bilkis Bano plea, to be heard on April 18

While posting the matter for hearing on April 18, a bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna said there is a gamut of issues involved and it needs to hear the matter in detail. The top court issued a notice to the Centre, the Gujarat government and the convicts.

New Delhi: Noting that it will take a strictly legal stance and brush aside the emotional aspects that entail the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat Government to be ready with relevant files with regard to remission to convicts.

Posting the matter for hearing on April 18 next, the top court also issued notice to the Centre and the Gujarat Government in response to a plea filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the remission of the sentence of 11 convicts. A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna said there is a gamut of issues involved and it needs to hear the matter in detail.

During the hearing, the bench observed that it would not be overwhelmed by emotions in the case and would only go by the law. On January 4, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the petition filed by Bano and other pleas. However, Justice Trivedi recused from hearing the case without citing any reason.

Bano had moved the apex court on November 30 last year challenging the premature release of 11 lifers by the state government, saying it has shaken the conscience of society.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year. The victim, in her pending writ petition, has said the state government passed a "mechanical order" completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court. The plea said en-masse remissions are not permissible and, moreover, such a relief cannot be sought or granted as a matter of right without examining the case of each convict individually based on their peculiar facts and role played by them in the crime.

The plea, which gave minute details of the crime, said Bano and her grown-up daughters were "shell-shocked with this sudden development". "When the nation was celebrating its 76th Independence Day, all the convicts were released prematurely and were garlanded and felicitated in full public glare and sweets were circulated," it said.

The top court is seized of PILs filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, Revati Laul, an independent journalist, Roop Rekha Verma, who is a former vice chancellor of the Lucknow University, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts.

Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed. The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.

A special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21, 2008 sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-rape of Bano and murder of seven members of her family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court. The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15, last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.

The case has been a matter of great public interest, with people expressing their anger and frustration on social media and in protests. The release of the convicts has been widely criticized as a travesty of justice, and the Supreme Court's decision will be closely watched.