Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah @ Lala Vakil v. Union of India and Anr., the case involving two men found guilty of gang raping Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots, had its appeal denied by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Radheshyam Bhagwandas and Rajubhai Babulal Soni, the two convicted individuals, petitioned the court for temporary bail until their requests for remission—early release from prison—were decided upon.
However, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and PV Sanjay Kumar did not hold back in stating that the guilty will not receive any such advantage.
“What is this plea? How is it even maintainable? Absolutely misconceived. How can in (Article) 32, we sit over appeal?” the Court enquired.
The two prisoners eventually withdrew the petition.
Notably, on January 8 of this year, the Gujarat government’s remission of all convictions in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case was revoked by the Supreme Court.
The top court determined in its January 8 ruling that the remission policy of Maharashtra, where the rape case trial was held, rather than the Gujarat government’s, applied to the eleven rape convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.
Stated differently, the Court held that the State of Gujarat lacked the jurisdiction to apply its policy of remission to the rape prisoners in this particular case. As a result, the Court mandated that the guilty be placed back in jail.
The Gujarat government was harshly criticized by the Court, which stated that by allowing the accused’s early release from custody, the State government had “acted in tandem and was complicit with the accused.”
The highest court is currently considering review petitions that the Gujarat government and the convicted parties filed contesting the validity of this decision.
Today, the two prisoners were represented by attorney Rishi Malhotra. Petitioners withdrew their cases once the Court signaled that it was unlikely to accept this plea.
