Supreme Court asks Gujarat for Bilkis Bano Case, remission files

The Supreme Court has asked the Gujarat government to produce the entire record of proceedings in the Bilkis Bano case, including the remission order given to the 11 convicts who gangraped Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna gave the Gujarat government two weeks to produce all relevant records in the case. The bench also issued notice to the Gujarat government and convicts on a plea filed by Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts.

The 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for gangrape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family were released on Independence Day. SC had earlier issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea filed by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul and social activist Roop Rekha Verma. SC had asked the petitioners to implead convicts in the petition.


"It is submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the Gujarat government also bore allegiance to a political party and sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not an authority that was entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand," the plea had stated.

The plea filed by the three women said they had challenged the order of competent authority of the Government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them.