The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain submissions seeking early listing of a plea filed by Gujarat Muslim genocide survivor Bilkis Bano challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in her gang rape case.
“The writ (petition) will be listed. Please, do not keep mentioning the same thing again and again. It is very irritating,” said Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
CJI’s bench was taking objection to Bilkis Bano’s counsel, Advocate Shobha Gupta, repeatedly seeking the setting up of another bench to hear the case.
The petition filed by Bilkis Bano could not be heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday as one of the judges on the bench, Justice Bela M Trivedi, recused herself. No reason was given for Justice Trivedi’s recusal.
The CJI will now have to set up a fresh bench to hear Bano’s case.
Bilkis Bano had approached the Supreme Court challenging the release of 11 Hindutva men convicted of gang-raping her and killing seven members of her family in the 2002 Gujarat Muslim genocide.
The convicts were freed on August 15, Independence Day, by the Gujarat government under a past remission policy.
The move sparked massive outrage, especially when visuals showed the rapists being garlanded and welcomed like heroes by a Hindutva organisation.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com . Read the full story here