I can breathe again, said Bilkis Bano after Supreme Court struck down the Gujarat government’s decision to free 11 men convicted for gang-raping her and killing her seven family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Reacting to the verdict, the gang-rape survivor thanked the Supreme Court for giving her and her children “hope in the promise of equal justice to all”.
“Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again,” Bilkis Bano said in a statement released through her advocate.
“This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all,” she added.
Her reaction came after the Supreme Court quashed Gujarat government’s August 15, 2022 decision to release the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under 1992 remission and premature release policy.
Pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, ruled that Gujarat had no jurisdiction to grant remission to the convicts.
The Gujarat Government, the apex court said, usurped the power of the Maharashtra government and asked why it didn’t file a review petition seeking correction of the court’s May 13, 2022 order.
The Court noted that the competent authority to grant remission in the case of convicts is Maharashtra government under whose jurisdiction they were sentenced and not the Gujarat government under whose territorial limits the offence was committed.
“We strike down the remission orders on grounds of usurpation of powers by the Gujarat government,” the top court said.
The top court directed all the 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.