Supreme Court: In an application filed by eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case seeking additional time to surrender before the jail authorities concerned , the division bench of BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, JJ. while stating that there was no valid reason cited by the convicts to allow such requests, rejected the application.
On 08-01-2024, in Bilkis Yakub Rasool v Union of India, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 25, the Court while setting aside the Gujarat Government’s orders of remission, held the following:
“The Government of State of Gujarat had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission or pass the orders of remission on 10-08-2022 in favour of the convicts as it was not the appropriate Government within the meaning of Section 432(7) of the CrPC. This Court’s order dated 13-05-2022 being vitiated and obtained by fraud as it was sought by suppression of material facts as well as by misrepresentation of facts, is therefore a nullity and non est in law. All proceedings taken pursuant to the said order also stand vitiated and are non est in the eye of law”.
The Supreme Court had ordered the convicts to surrender within two weeks, but all of them moved the Court seeking additional four to six weeks on grounds of domestic responsibilities, harvesting winter crops, old age and ill health. However, the Court rejected their applications, and now all of them will have to surrender by 22-01-2024.
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Inside Supreme Court’s verdict on premature release of 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano gang rape case
Source: Press
