Justice Trivedi recuses self from hearing pleas related to Bano

Justice Bela M Trivedi of the Supreme Court on Wednesday recused herself from hearing a batch of public interest litigations challenging the remission granted to eleven men convicted in the Bilkis Bano case.

A bench comprising justices Ajay Rastogi and Trivedi ordered that the pleas be listed before a bench where Justice Trivedi is not a member. Justice Trivedi had also recused herself from hearing a separate petition filed by Bano with the same plea in December last year. No reason for the recusal was given.

"Since my sister (justice Trivedi) wants to recuse, we cannot pass a tagging order. Now that the victim is here ... we will take the victim's matter as a lead matter ... List before the bench wherein justice Trivedi is not a member," Justice Rastogi said.


All the pleas will be tagged to Bano's petition when the bench in a different combination will sit, the court said. The court said the argument that the petitioners have no right to file a plea, as raised by the counsel of the convicts, would not arise once the victim (Bano) had filed a plea.

The Gujarat government has defended the release of the convicts. In its response, the state government had said it decided to release all the 11 convicts as per a 1992 remission policy since they completed more than 14 years in prison and their behaviour was found to be good. It had said that the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved the release of the convicts.