"If justice won't come from Supreme Court, where will people go?"

New Delhi: After the Supreme Court rejected Bilkis Bano's review petition, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) head Swati Maliwal asked on Saturday where people could go for justice if they do not get it from the Supreme Court, PTI reported.

During the 2002 Gujarat riots, petitioner Bilkis Bano was gang-raped- she was 21 years old and pregnant- and seven members of her family, including her three-year-old son, were killed by the 11 convicts in the case. However, the Gujarat government released all of them on August 15 this year, saying that they had already spent 14 years in jail and behaved well behind bars.

The Supreme Court has dismissed Ms Bano's plea seeking a review of its earlier order by which it had asked the Gujarat government to consider the petitions for the remission of the sentences of 11 convicts in the gang rape case.

Maliwal tweeted, "Supreme Court rejected Bilkis Bano's plea. Bilkis Bano was gang-raped when she was 21 years old, and her three-year-old son and six family members were murdered, but the Gujarat government freed all the rapists. If justice won't come from Supreme Court, where will people go?"

As per the Supreme Court procedures, review pleas against its judgements are decided in chambers by circulation by the judges who were part of the same judgement under review.

Bano's plea came for review consideration on December 13 before a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath.

A communication sent to Ms Bano's counsel Shobha Gupta by the apex court's assistant registrar read, "I am directed to inform you that the review petition above mentioned filed in Supreme Court was dismissed by the court on December 13, 2022."

The review petition was filed against a Supreme Court order on May 13 after one of the convicts moved here with a plea. The top court asked the state government to consider the plea, which sought a premature release of the convicts in terms of its policy of July 9, 1992, about deciding a remission petition within a period of two months.

Subsequently, the state government granted remission to all 11 rapists/mass murderers on August 15 as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.