‘Acted in Tandem': Gujarat Govt Wants SC Adverse Observations Dropped in Bilkis Bano Case
A month following the Supreme Court's ruling mandating the 11 men found guilty of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 riots to return to prison, the Gujarati government has petitioned the apex court seeking removal of some "adverse" remarks made against it during the judgement, reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena.
Published : Feb 14, 2024, 7:49 AM IST
New Delhi: A month after the Supreme Court ordered that the 11 men, convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 riots, must return to jail, the Gujarat government has moved the apex court seeking removal of some "adverse" observations made against it in the judgment.
The state government, in the review petition filed through advocate Swati Ghildiyal, said: “At the outset, it is humbly submitted that the observation holding the State of Gujarat guilty of ‘usurpation of power’ and ‘abuse of discretion’ for complying with the order of this Hon’ble Court, whereby another Co-ordinate Bench of this Hon’ble Court held the State of Gujarat to be the 'appropriate government' u/s 432(7) of CrPC, and issued a mandamus to the State of Gujarat to decide the remission Application of the RespondentNo.3 herein/accused in accordance with the Remission Policy of 1992 which was in existence at the time of conviction in the State of Gujarat, is an error apparent on the face of the record”.
On January 8, the apex court quashed the remission granted to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case by the Gujarat government. The apex court said that the Gujarat government had no power to apply its remission policy to these eleven convicts and directed all the convicts to surrender within two weeks.
The Gujarat government contended that the extreme observation made by the apex court that the state “acted in tandem and was complicit with respondent No3/accused” is not only highly unwarranted and against the record of the case, but has caused serious prejudice to the state of Gujarat.
“In view of the errors on the face of the record, brought to the notice of this Hon’ble Court as mentioned hereinabove, the interference of this Hon’ble Court is imperative and this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to review its impugned common final judgement and order dated January 8, 2024”, said the review plea.
The state government also made a tabular chart depicting the observations made by the apex court and the error apparent on the face of the record with respect to such observations made by it in the judgment dated January 8. The state government said it is thus evident that, all the correct facts as well as the relevant judgments were placed before the apex court in the review petition filed in 2022.
“It is humbly submitted that non-filing of the review Petition by the State Government was not only unnecessary…. order dated December 13, 2022 passed by this court dismissing the review petition preferred by the writ petitioner/victim herein, shows that no ‘fraud’ as held by this court in judgment under review dated January 8 has been committed on this court and even otherwise, by no stretch of imagination, the State of Gujarat can be held to have ‘acted in tandem and complicit with Respondent No.3' in perpetuating the aforesaid so-called fraud, by non-filing of a Review Petition, which in fact, as a matter was record was heard by this Hon’ble Court and dismissed by way of a speaking order”, said the review petition filed by Gujarat government.
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