Gujarat to SC: Review Bilkis order, remarks on state are unwarranted

The Gujarat government has approached the Supreme Court seeking review of its January 8 judgment cancelling the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, stating that some of the comments in it were “not only highly unwarranted and against the record of the case, but has caused serious prejudice to the State”.

It termed as “extreme observation”, the court’s remarks in the order that the state government “acted in tandem and was complicit with Respondent No 3/accused” Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, who was among the 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots.

The plea said that the Supreme Court holding the state of Gujarat guilty of “usurpation of power” and “abuse of discretion” in its order “is an error apparent on the face of the record”.

The state said it was “only complying” with the May 13, 2022 “order of a Co-ordinate Bench of the SC”, which held it to be the “Appropriate Government” to take a call on the remission request of the convicts and also “issued a mandamus to it to decide the remission application of one of the convicts in accordance with the Remission Policy of 1992”.

The May 13, 2022 order of a two-judge bench had come on a plea by Shah. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the case by a CBI court in Mumbai in 2008, he had approached the apex court after completing 15 years and 4 months in jail.

Reversing the remission granted to the 11 convicts on January 8, the Supreme Court bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had held that the May 13, 2022 judgement “is a nullity and is non est in law since the said order was sought by suppression of material facts as well as by misrepresentation of facts… and therefore, fraudulently obtained at the hands of this Court”.

In its latest plea, the state, however, said that “no adverse inference of ‘usurpation of power’ can be drawn against” it for not filing a review petition against the 2022 order.

It said that records would reveal that it “has consistently submitted before this Hon’ble Court as well as the Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat, that the State of Maharashtra is the ‘Appropriate Government’ under Section 432(7) of CrPC” to decide on the remission applications.

“A bare perusal of the judgement dated 13.05.2022… would show that a categorical submission was made by the State of Gujarat that since the trial has been concluded in the State of Maharashtra, the expression ‘Appropriate Government’ as referred to under Section 432(7) of CrPC would be the State of Maharashtra,” it said.

The Gujarat government said that although it did not file the review petition against the 2022 order, the court “clearly erred in not considering the fact that a review petition” was filed by Bilkis Bano herself but it was dismissed “vide a speaking order” on December 13, 2022.