'In-chamber' hearing on Bilkis Bano petition to be heard by SC today

New Delhi: The Gujarat government was instructed to take into consideration releasing one of the prisoners based on the state's 1992 remission policy. Bilkis Bano has filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking for a review of that order. When Bilkis was 20 years old and five months pregnant during the Godhra riots in Gujarat, she was gang-raped by the prisoners, and the 1992 policy did not prohibit the release of rape, gang rape, or murder convictions.

The bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath will hear Bano's review petition in chambers. In addition to the review, Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M. Trivedi's bench will hear Bilkis' challenge against the release of 11 prisoners who were freed on August 15, 2022, the nation's 76th Independence Day, in open court, NIE reported.

Her plea would be considered for an early listing after Chief Justice DY Chandrachud's bench consented to do so on Monday. "Review plea will come up. It's a review it'll come up before the bench but by circulation. I'll have it placed early," the CJI had said.

The order that Bilkis is seeking review of was made on May 13 after a plea from one of the defendants, Radhey Shyam, was heard by the bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath.

The victim, Bilkis, was allegedly left out of one of the convicts, RadheyShyamappeal's to the Supreme Court, according to the review petition. The plea states that the delay in submitting the review petition "took enormous efforts and time for the present review petitioner- victim of one of the most gruesome and inhuman communal hate crimes this country has ever witnessed, to collect courage and regroup herself to decide to hold the baton once again, after just getting over with the extremely excruciating 17 years long drawn legal battle in ensuring that her culprits are punished for the egregious crime they had committed."