Bilkis Bano Case: One of the defendants in the Bilkis Bano case has questioned the petitioners’ standing, saying “none of them are related whatsoever to the said case and only happens to be either a political activist or a third party stranger.” He has called the petition challenging the Gujarat government’s decision to commute his sentence after 15 years in prison to be “speculative and politically motivated.”
Convicted Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah cited cases in which the Supreme Court “has consistently held in clear terms that a third party who is a total stranger to the prosecution has no ‘locus standi’ in criminal matters and has no right whatsoever in filing a petition” under Article 32 of the constitution in an affidavit submitted through Attorney Rishi Malhotra.
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Two petitions have been filed so far
He said that to entertain such petitions “would” therefore “not only unsettle the settled position of law but would also open flood gates and would be an open invitation for any member of the public to jump in any criminal matter before any court of law”.
Following petition to the Supreme Court, the Gujarat government freed 11 of the 11 gangrape and murder defendants from the Bilkis Bano case on August 15 as part of the 1992 remission and early release programme for life-term prisoners. The Gujarat government would be the proper authority to give remission based on the 1992 policy, the Supreme Court had said after hearing the case’s appeal, despite the fact that the trial had taken place in Maharashtra.
Since its release, the Supreme Court has given notices on two applications that were filed to challenge it, one by TMC MP Mahua Moitra and the other by academic Roop Rekha Verma, journalist Revati Laul, and CPI(M) politician Subhashini Ali. Shah’s petition made reference to Ali and others’ petition.
On March 3, 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bilkis was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was one of 14 people killed by a mob in Limkheda Taluka of Dahod district. The moment was when Bilkis was pregnant. The Gujarati government cited the Jail Advisory Committee’s (JAC) “unanimous” recommendation that the prisoners be released on “good behaviour” grounds.
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Shah clarifies his stand
In his affidavit, Shah cited a different instance and said that similar issues had been brought up when Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of the Akali Dal (M), attempted to contest the conviction of the accused under the TADA Act under Article 32 of the Constitution.
In his affidavit, Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of the Akali Dal (M), tried to challenge the conviction of the accused under the TADA Act under Article 32 of the Constitution. Shah mentioned a separate incident and said that identical arguments had been made there.
It claimed that in 2010, the “Court went further and decided that in cases where two policies for premature release existed at the time of consideration, a policy which can be read generously in favour of a prisoner be implemented in a convict case.”
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