'Crime Committed Against Bilkis Bano Part Of Communal Violence Targeting Members Of One Community' : Indira Jaising Tells Supreme Court

The brutal gang-rape of five-months-pregnant Bilkis Bano and the murders of her family members including kids amidst the 2002 Gujarat riots was a ‘crime against humanity’, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising told the Supreme Court on Thursday. My submission is that what happened to Bilkis Bano was a crime against humanity because it happened in a situation of widespread communal violence targeting the members of one community…The crime committed against Bilkis Bano cannot be viewed in isolation from the communal and sectarian conflict that broke out in Gujarat.” A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing a clutch of pleas against the decision of the Gujarat government to grant remission to the 11 convicts who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders and violent sexual assault during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. These public interest litigations are representing the concerns of not only these victims, but also the society since they are actually crimes against humanity…crimes against society.” The counsel also told the court that Bilkis Bano admitted in a public statement that the presence of the public interest litigants and their willingness to ‘take on hurdles’ on her behalf imbued her with the courage to approach the Supreme Court herself. We are in no way in the domain of judicial power being exercised, but executive power, and administrative prerogative.” On maintainability, Grover further said that the issues agitated in the public interest litigations were not limited to the remission of the 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano’s case but raised larger issues regarding the opacity of the process of granting remissions: “What is required is there needs to be greater transparency in process of granting remissions. She works for people from downtrodden communities and religious minorities.” Supreme Court entertaining Bilkis Bano’s petition deprives convicts of two appellate fora and violates their right to appeal: Senior Advocate S Guru Krishnamar Senior Advocate S Guru Krishnakumar argued against Bilkis’ petition being entertained by the Supreme Court on the ground that the convicts were deprived of two appellate fora.