On Thursday, the Supreme Court denied the Gujarat government’s request for a reexamination of its January 8 ruling in the case of the Bilkis Bano convictions due to some remarks made against the administration.
“We are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record or any merit in the review petitions, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,” the Supreme Court stated.
In February, the Gujarat government submitted an appeal seeking a reexamination of the January 8 ruling of the Supreme Court, which had reversed the clemency given to the eleven convicted individuals in the Bilkis Bano case. The government said that certain of the remarks made in the ruling had “caused significant harm to the state” in addition to being “highly inappropriate and contradictory to the case record”.
The Supreme Court’s January 8 ruling, which noted that “the state of Gujarat acted in tandem and was complicit with Respondent No3/accused,” was met with opposition from the Gujarati government. According to the government, this comment was uncalled for, unsupported by the case file, and it gravely damaged Gujarat, the petitioner state.
The Gujarat government used nine arguments in its review petition to argue that the top court erred in stating that the apex court failed to recognize the true circumstances of the case. The government made it clear that it had consulted with every pertinent authority, including the Mumbai court that oversaw the trial and the SP, via the superintendent of the Godhra sub-jail, where the prisoners were being held. The Maharashtra government was notified of the idea in November 2011, however they did not reply.
In its January ruling, the Supreme Court observed that the subsequent lawsuit might have been prevented if the Gujarati government had informed the court that it was not the “appropriate government” to decide whether to have the 11 life prisoners in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case remitted. The Gujarat government stole the Maharashtra government’s authority to decide whether to release the convicts, according to the court, even though the trial took place in a Maharashtra CBI court.
In the end, the Gujarat government’s decision to give 11 prisoners who were found guilty of gang-raping Bilkis Bano in 2002 and killing seven of her family members during the state’s sectarian violence early parole was overruled by the Supreme Court.