Bilkis Bano case: Supreme Court dismisses plea by convicts seeking extension of time to surrender

The 11 life convicts had sought the extensions citing a slew of reasons such as pending harvesting work, post-angioplasty care and a marriage in the family

Bilkis Bano.: File Photo.

R. Balaji, New Delhi, 20.01.24 : .The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Bilkis Bano case convicts’ plea to extend the January 22 deadline for them to surrender before jail authorities, ruling their request had “no merit”.

The 11 life convicts had sought the extensions citing a slew of reasons such as pending harvesting work, post-angioplasty care and a marriage in the family.

“You are aware that when we had passed our judgment on January 8 for you to surrender, we gave you two weeks to put your affairs in order,” Justice B.V. Nagarathna, the presiding judge, told the advocates appearing for the convicts during a brief special hearing during the lunch recess.

The Supreme Court had on January 8 quashed the release of the convicts, saying the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to decide on their remission and that the release order was “vitiated” by “fraud”. It had set the convicts a two-week deadline to surrender.

Friday’s ruling means they must surrender by January 22.

Friday’s order by the bench of Justice Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, which had also passed the January 8 judgment, said: “We have heard senior counsel and counsels for the applicants. The reasons cited by the applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail ha(ve) no merit in as much as those reasons in no way prevent them from complying with our directions.”

It added: “We find no merit in the reasons cited. Hence the miscellaneous applications are dismissed.”

The matter had been listed for a special hearing on Friday following pleas on Thursday from the lawyers for five of the convicts: Govind Nai, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Ramesh Chandana and Mithesh Bhat. They had sought up to eight weeks’ extension of the surrender deadline.

When the matter came up on Friday, the remaining six convicts -- Bakabhai Vohania, Kesarbhai Vohania, Jaswant Nai, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni and Shailesh Bhatt – also sought deadline extensions.

The 11 had been held guilty of the gang rape of Bilkis and the murder of 12 members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat government remitted their life sentences on August 10 last year and released them on August 15, triggering public outrage.

Bilkis had challenged their release. Similar petitions were filed also by Meeran Chadha Borwankar, a former woman IPS officer; CPI leader Subhashini Ali; Trinamul politician Mahua Moitra; the National Federation of Indian Women; lawyer Asma Shafique Shaikh and others.