Ten days after the Supreme Court struck down the remission granted by the Gujarat government to convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, three of the 11 convicts have filed a plea before the apex court seeking an extension of time to surrender before the jail authorities. The Supreme Court on January 9 ordered Nai and 10 other convicts to surrender before the jail authorities within two weeks.
While convict Ramesh Rupabhai Chandana has sought extension of time by another six weeks, claiming he has to get his son married and fulfill the responsibility, Mitesh Chimanlal Bhat sought six weeks extension stating his winter produce is ready for harvest and he would prefer to complete the process and then surrender.
Another convict Govindbhai Nai too filed a petition citing his ill health and domestic responsibilities to seek extension of time. He claimed that his his 88-year old father was bedridden and dependent on him. He is the only caretaker of his parents.
He has further submitted that he had to undergo an angiography recently and is yet to undergo another operation for the treatment ‘Hemorrhoids’. The applicant, aged 55 years, added that he himself was "an old man who is suffering from Asthma and in really poor health".
All of them were convicted for gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murders of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
On January 8, the Supreme Court had set aside the remission orders passed by the Gujarat Government which allowed the premature release of the convicts in August 2022 after serving 14 years of sentence.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, holding that the State of Gujarat lacked jurisdiction to grant remission in the case as the trial was held in the State of Maharashtra.
The Gujarat government had applied its remission policy to release the convicts during the 2022 Independence Day. The Gujarat government's decision was challenged by various petitioners including Bano before the top court.
