New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea filed by Bilkis Bano, seeking a review of its earlier order by which it had asked the Gujarat government to consider the petitions for remission of sentences of 11 convicts in the gang-rape case.
According to procedures, review pleas against apex court judgments are decided in chambers by circulation by the judges who were part of the judgment under review.
The review plea came up for in-chamber consideration on December 13 before a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath.
"I am directed to inform you that the review petition above mentioned filed in Supreme Court was dismissed by the court on December 13, 2022," read a communication sent to Bano's counsel Shobha Gupta by the apex court's assistant registrar.
The gang-rape survivor had sought a review of the top court's May 13 order on a plea moved by a convict.
The top court had asked the state government to consider the plea for a premature release of the convicts in terms of its policy of July 9, 1992 about deciding a remission petition within a period of two months.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the violence that broke out after the Godhra train burning. Among those killed was her three-year-old daughter.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.
The 11 convicts walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.
