Supreme Court denies bail to Bilkis Bano case convicts

The Supreme Court on July 19 turned down the interim bail applications of Radheyshyam Bhagwandas and Rajubhai Babulal, two men convicted for the 2002 rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family during the Gujarat riots in Godhra.

Bhagwandas and Babulal had requested temporary release until the Supreme Court delivered a verdict on their new remission plea.

They were challenging the court’s January ruling, which had nullified their release granted by the Gujarat government on Independence Day 2022.

In March, Bhagwandas and Babulal approached the Supreme Court, arguing that the January decision conflicted with a 2002 order from the Constitution bench.

They requested that the issue of the Gujarat government’s cancellation of their remission be referred to a larger bench for reconsideration.

They highlighted an "anomalous" situation where two Supreme Court benches of equal strength had issued contradictory rulings regarding the state’s early release policy for prisoners.

The convicts’ plea pointed out that in May 2022, one bench had directed the Gujarat government to consider Bhagwandas’ early release request.

However, the bench delivering the January verdict stated that the authority to grant remission lay with Maharashtra, not Gujarat.

"If this situation is allowed, it will lead to judicial impropriety and uncertainty about which legal precedent to follow in the future," their plea contended.

They sought a directive for the central government to clarify which ruling—May 13, 2022, or January 8, 2024—should be applied.

Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing Bhagwandas and Babulal, urged the court to allow his clients to approach the appropriate authority due to the conflicting court decisions.

Supreme Court's response

Justice Sanjiv Khanna, addressing the plea, remarked, "What is this plea... how is it even maintainable? Absolutely misconceived... How can we sit on appeal in PIL (public interest litigation)?" He explained that the court could not entertain an appeal in this context and clarified that the earlier judgment was considered in the January verdict under Article 32, which permits individuals to approach the Supreme Court for enforcing fundamental rights.

"We are not sitting in appeal..." Justice Khanna concluded, upholding the January ruling.

In its January decision, the Supreme Court criticized the May 2022 ruling by Justice Ajay Rastogi (now retired), stating that the Gujarat government should have sought a review.

The January judgment noted that the convicts' release was based on a 1992 remission policy, which had been replaced by a 2014 law, thereby sending the 11 convicts back to prison.

In August 2022, the Gujarat government had granted premature release to the 11 life-sentenced convicts, citing a 1992 policy and their "good conduct." The Supreme Court, however, reprimanded the Gujarat government for overstepping its authority, which it stated belonged to Maharashtra, in granting remission.

Bilkis Bano was 21 and five months pregnant when she was raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed during the attack.