“Gujarat’s Legal Chess: Rewriting the Narrative of the Bilkis Bano Case”

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s directive for the 11 individuals convicted in the Bilkis Bano rape and murder case during the 2002 riots to return to incarceration, the Gujarat government has approached the apex court, seeking the expunction of certain “adverse” remarks found within the judgment.

The state’s plea, presented by advocate Swati Ghildiyal in the review petition, asserts: “Primarily, it is respectfully submitted that the observation deeming the State of Gujarat culpable of ‘usurpation of power’ and ‘abuse of discretion’ for adhering to this Hon’ble Court’s order, where a different Co-ordinate Bench of this Hon’ble Court affirmed the State of Gujarat as the ‘appropriate government’ under section 432(7) of CrPC, and mandated the State of Gujarat to adjudicate on the remission Application of Respondent No.3/accused as per the Remission Policy of 1992 prevailing at the time of conviction in Gujarat, constitutes a manifest error on the face of the record.”

On January 8, the apex court annulled the remission granted by the Gujarat government to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The court maintained that the Gujarat government lacked the authority to apply its remission policy to these eleven convicts and instructed all convicts to surrender within a fortnight.

The Gujarat government argues that the strong statement made by the apex court, suggesting that the state “acted in tandem and was complicit with respondent No3/accused,” is not only highly undeserved but also contrary to the case records, causing significant harm to the state of Gujarat.

“Given the errors apparent on the face of the record, as brought to the attention of this Hon’ble Court as aforementioned, it is imperative for this Hon’ble Court to intervene, and this Hon’ble Court is urged to reconsider its impugned common final judgement and order dated January 8, 2024,” stated the review plea.

The state government also presented a tabular representation illustrating the observations made by the apex court and the manifest errors on the face of the record regarding these observations in the January 8 judgment. The state government contends that all accurate facts and pertinent judgments were presented to the apex court in the review petition filed in 2022.

“It is respectfully submitted that the non-filing of the review Petition by the State Government was not only unnecessary… the order dated December 13, 2022, issued by this court dismissing the review petition filed by the writ petitioner/victim herein, indicates that no ‘fraud’ as asserted by this court in the judgment under review dated January 8 has transpired in this court, and moreover, under no circumstances can the State of Gujarat be deemed to have ‘acted in tandem and complicit with Respondent No.3′ in perpetrating the aforementioned so-called fraud, by abstaining from filing a Review Petition, which, in fact, was heard by this Hon’ble Court and dismissed through a reasoned order,” detailed the review petition filed by the Gujarat government.