Bilkis Bano case: Accused has constitutional right to be reintegrated into society, says SC

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said there may not be any fundamental right but there exists a constitutional right and a statutory right. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday orally remarked that an accused in a criminal case has a constitutional right to be reintegrated into society, while a batch of petitions challenging the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said there may not be any fundamental right but there exists a constitutional right and a statutory right. “The purpose is to see that the convict re-integrates into society”, said the bench. The apex court made this observation regarding provisions in the Constitution that empower the President and governors to pardon and allow remission.

The bench observed that the reintegration of an accused into society is also a constitutional right. The bench said that remission is mentioned in 161, 72 (Articles of the Constitution), apart from being a statutory right. A counsel, representing a petitioner, argued that entertaining remission requests is part of an exercise of constitutional powers by the executive, but it is not a right in itself.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, representing TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who is one of the petitioners, submitted that the state failed in exercising its constitutional mandate of protecting the rights of women and children and instead, it opted for ensuring the premature release of convicts, which was contrary to the law. The counsel said the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members were a “crime against humanity”.

Jaising said what happened to Bano was a crime against humanity because it happened in a situation of widespread communal violence which was targeted at a community. The top court will continue to hear the matter on August 17. Bano had moved the apex court challenging the release of 11 convicts who had gang-raped her and murdered her family members.

Besides the petition filed by Bano, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission along with several other PILs including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma.