The petitioner argues that due to the discord between a two-judge bench led by Justice BV Nagarathna and another two-judge bench led by Justice Rastogi, the case should have been referred to a larger bench. Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, contending that the January 8 verdict, which resulted in the re-incarceration of all eleven defendants and the annulment of his remission, was judicially inappropriate.
The petition labels the January 8 judgment by Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan as “not only judicial impropriety but also engenders uncertainty and chaos regarding the future application of legal precedence.”
Radheshyam argues that the decision of the two-judge bench, headed by Justice Nagarathna, to overturn a ruling made by another two judges of the Supreme Court, specifically Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath, was legally flawed.
In May 2022, a bench led by Justice Rastogi issued a verdict stating that the State of Gujarat, rather than the government of Maharashtra, had jurisdiction over remission applications submitted by the rape suspects in the Bilkis Bano case. Consequently, the Gujarat government chose to grant the remission applications, which was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court.
The matter was deliberated by a bench presided over by Justice Nagarathna, which concluded that Radheshyam had obtained the May 2022 judgment through deceptive means and the withholding of material facts.
The bench led by Justice Nagarathna also admonished Radheshyam and the Gujarat government for this issue. Consequently, the court nullified the Gujarat government’s decision to allow the early release of convicted individuals from prison, ruling that the May 2022 judgment was fraudulently obtained and thus void in law.
