The Supreme Court of India has rejected the interim bail petitions filed by Radheyshyam Bhagwandas and Rajubhai Babulal, two men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The court’s decision on Friday came after the two convicts sought temporary release pending the Supreme Court’s ruling on a new remission plea challenging the court’s January 8 verdict.
Bhagwandas and Babulal, who were convicted for their roles in the horrific gang rape and murder case, had requested bail until the court could address their fresh remission plea. This plea challenged the earlier January ruling, which had overturned their release granted by the Gujarat government on Independence Day in 2022.
In their appeal, Bhagwandas and Babulal contended that the January verdict contradicted a 2002 order by the Constitution bench and sought to have the matter referred to a larger bench. They argued that the conflicting decisions by different Supreme Court benches had created confusion regarding the state’s authority to grant early release. They requested the court to clarify which judgment—the one from May 2022 or the January 2024 ruling—should be applied.
The Supreme Court, however, dismissed their petitions, with Justice Sanjiv Khanna criticizing the pleas as “absolutely misconceived” and inappropriate for consideration in a public interest litigation. The court maintained that it was not in a position to review or appeal its own decisions on this matter.
The January ruling had been highly critical of the Gujarat government’s premature release of the convicts, noting that the release was based on a superseded 1992 remission policy. The court emphasized that the convicts should have remained in jail, and the Gujarat government had overstepped its jurisdiction by granting remission.
In August 2022, the Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts—serving life sentences—based on a 1992 remission policy and their “good conduct,” but this decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Sources By Agencies
