Varanasi: The government of Gujarat “usurped and abused power” not vested in it when it ordered the release of 11 people convicted for raping Bilkis Bano, the Supreme Court of India said on Monday. The court today directed the convicts to surrender before the authorities within two weeks.
The Supreme Court, while hearing a clutch of petitions against the Gujarat government’s 2022 order, said the state wasn’t competent to release the convicts. The court said only the state where the trial had taken place — in this case, Maharashtra — has the right to take a call on remission of sentence.
The Supreme Court of India on Monday said that the petition filed by Bilkis Bano challenging the early release of of 11 convicts was maintainable. The Supreme Court of India has quashed the order of the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in rape of Bilkis Bano. In strongly worded observations, the Supreme Court blamed the Gujarat government for breaching the rule of law.
“Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed…We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government,” the bench said.
“Gujarat government did not have jurisdiction to decide the remission since the appropriate government to consider remission was the state where the trial took place,” the apex court said.
The top court holds its May 13, 2022 order of another bench on remission of convicts was obtained by playing ‘fraud on court’.
Bilkis Bano had filed a petition challenging the remission granted to convicts. Besides the petition filed by Bano, 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, have challenged the relief.
TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.
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