The Bhupendrabhai Patel-led Gujarat government filed a review petition in the Supreme Court in the Bilkis Bano case, requesting the removal of remarks deemed unfavourable to the state.
The state’s BJP government has urged the top court to expunge its remarks suggesting that the state acted in tandem with and was complicit with the convicts in the case.
The top court had on January 8 annulled the remission Gujarat government had granted to all 11 convicts in the 2002 post-Godhra riot case of the gangrape of Gujarat woman Bilkis Bano while slamming the state for being “complicit” with an accused and abusing its discretion.
Terming the remarks unwarranted, the Gujarat government said that such comments led to prejudice.
“It is humbly submitted that the extreme observation made by this Hon’ble Court that the State of Gujarat acted in tandem and was complicit with Respondent No.3 accused is not only highly unwarranted and against the record of the case but has caused serious prejudice to the Petitioner – State of Gujarat,” the review petition stated.
Furthermore, the Gujarat government justified its actions, stating that it acted in accordance with the Supreme Court’s 2022 mandamus, and asserted that the charge of usurpation of power is incorrect.
In August 2022, the 11 convicts, serving a life sentence, were granted premature release from jail after the Gujarat government accepted their remission applications in accordance with its 1992 policy, citing their ‘good conduct’ during imprisonment.
Later, the Supreme Court ordered the convicts, who were released from Godhra district jail on Independence Day in 2022 after being in prison for 14 years, to go back to jail within two weeks.
The convicts surrendered before Godhra jail authorities on January 21.
Quashing the remission order, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Gujarat government lacked jurisdiction to grant premature release to the convicts as the trial in the 2002 case had been held in Maharashtra.
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