New Delhi. The Gujarat government has suffered a major setback in the Bilkis Bano case. The Supreme Court has refused to remove the harsh comments made in this case. The Gujarat government had filed a petition for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Bilkis case, which has been rejected by the Supreme Court. The review petition had sought removal of harsh comments against the Gujarat government.
It is noteworthy that on January 8, the Supreme Court had sent back 11 convicts to jail in the Bilkis Bano rape case during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Supreme Court had canceled the order of premature release of these convicts by the Gujarat government. He had also made strong comments against the Gujarat government in his order. The Gujarat government had gone to court to remove these comments. The government had termed some of the Supreme Court’s comments as inappropriate. But the court refused to delete the observations made in the Supreme Court order related to the release of the convicts in the Bilkis case.
The Gujarat government had said in its review petition that the Supreme Court had made harsh remarks in its order saying that Gujarat ‘acted in collusion and colluded with the culprits’. The petition said that this observation of the Supreme Court is not only inappropriate and against the record of the case, but is also prejudiced against the petitioner, the Gujarat government. It is noteworthy that all the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were released prematurely in August 2022, before the assembly elections in Gujarat. Bilkis Bano had challenged the release of the convicts in the Supreme Court. After the hearing, the Supreme Court had ordered to send all the culprits back to jail.
The Supreme Court had made many harsh comments in its order of January 8. The Gujarat government had filed a petition to get him removed. After hearing that petition, the bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjwal Bhuinya said that there is no mistake in the order of the Supreme Court with respect to the issues raised by the Gujarat government. Therefore the re-appeal is dismissed.