On Supreme Court’s decision in Bilkis Bano case: The meaning of ‘ordinary’
<p>A woman named Bilkis Bano (née Bilkis Yakub Rasool)— 21-years old at the time of the incident I summarize here, and five months pregnant — was gang-raped, and fourteen of her family members murdered (which included eight minors, children as young as a two-day old infant, and a three-year old child), by a group of twelve men during riots that took place in the state of Gujarat in 2002. Eleven men were confirmed with a life sentence in the case. The Indian criminal system, on the principles of reformative justice, allows for the “remission” in sentence following a period of 14 years from the date of imprisonment, subject to fulfilment of certain conditions, and following of procedural norms. In August 2022, following the strategic suppression of facts before various courts, the eleven convicts were released <em>en masse</em> by remission by the State of Gujarat. Aggrieved by this, Bilkis, along with a few other concerned citizens, filed Writ Petitions before the Supreme Court seeking setting aside of these remissions. The quashing of the remission was granted on 8 January 2024.</p>
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