Bilkis Bano case: SC refuses to extend time for surrender to 11 convicts
Bilkis Bano gangrape case. The court held that the reasons cited in their application do not prevent them from complying with the January 8 order to surrender in two weeks. The convicts will now have to surrender by Sunday.
All 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in Gujarat moved the Supreme Court on Thursday requesting more time to surrender before jail authorities. The convicts have sought an extension of time due to 'ill health', 'harvest of winter crops', and 'son's marriage', Bar and Bench reported. The matter seeking an extension of time was mentioned before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathana and Sanjay Karol on Thursday which asked the Registry to place the plea before CJI.
This came after the Supreme Court of India last week quashed the Gujarat government's decision, taken in August 2022, to prematurely release 11 convicts facing life terms. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks. In its 251-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences and only the government of the state where the offenders were sentenced was competent to consider an application for remission and pass an order.
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