The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to set up a special bench to hear pleas against the acquittal of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice J. B. Pardiwala’s bench, while hearing the petition of Bilkis Bano, assured her through her lawyer Shobha Gupta that a new bench would be constituted. Gupta had requested for an urgent hearing on the matter, saying there was a need to constitute a new bench.
The Chief Justice said, “A new bench will be constituted. We will consider it this evening.” Earlier on January 24, Bilkis Bano’s petition challenging the Gujarat government’s pardon to 11 convicts in a gang rape case could not be heard in the Supreme Court as the judge concerned was sitting in a five-judge bench. Being a part of the constitution bench, he was hearing a case related to passive euthanasia.
Apart from the petition challenging the acquittal of the convicts, Bano had also filed a separate petition seeking review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022 order on a plea by one of the convicts.
The top court, in an order passed on May 13, 2022, had asked the state government to consider the plea of a convict for premature release in terms of its July 9, 1992 policy and decide on it within a period of two months. However, this petition was dismissed by the apex court in December last year.
All the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case were released on August 15 last year. He was lodged in the Godhra sub-jail and was in jail for more than 15 years.
Seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family were also killed during the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
