Release of Bilkis Bano gang rape convicts cancelled, Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan's first big verdict in Supreme Court

In a big blow to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court overturned Gujarat government's decision to grant early release to 11 convicts involved in the heinous crimes against Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots. 

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathana and Ujjal Bhuyan pronounced the verdict and said a petition filed by Bilkis Bano challenging the early release of 11 convicts was valid.

"An application (for their early release) was filed by the governments before the Government of Gujarat and the government is competent to consider", the Supreme Court observed.

The bench headed by Nagarathana and Bhuyan said the Gujarat government was not empowered to pass the order on the early release of the convicts since the appropriate government entitled to pass such orders was Maharashtra, where the trial took place, and not Gujarat.

The convicts had been set free in 2022 under an outdated remission policy from 1992, despite a more recent 2014 law that prohibits such early releases in cases involving capital offenses. This move by the Gujarat government had sparked widespread criticism and led to several petitions challenging the release, including one from Bilkis Bano herself.

Who is Ujjal Bhuyan?

Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan was born in 1964 in Guwahati to Suchendra Nath Bhuyan, a highly respected senior lawyer and former Advocate General of Assam. He completed his schooling at Don Bosco High School, Guwahati before pursuing his higher education. Bhuyan has obtained a degree in Arts from Kirori Mal College, Delhi. After this he studied LLB. Degree from Government Law College, Guwahati and later obtained LLM

He was appointed as additional advocate general, Assam on 21 July 2011. He was elevated as an additional judge of the Gauhati High Court on 17 October 2011 and made a permanent judge on 20 March 2013. He was transferred as a judge of the Bombay High Court on 3 October 2019.

Bhuyan was transferred as a judge of the Telangana High Court on 22 October 2021. He was elevated as chief justice of the Telangana High Court on 28 June 2022. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of India on 14 July 2023.

What is the Bilkis Bano case?

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped, and seven of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter, were brutally murdered amidst the communal violence that erupted following the Sabarmati Express incident. The convicts' death sentences had previously been commuted to life imprisonment, raising questions about the justification for their release after serving only 14 years.

The verdict in Bilkis Bano's case heard by a division bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, which began in August and lasted for 11 days, was reserved on October 12. Bilkis was represented by Advocate Shobha Gupta, while public interest litigants were represented by Senior Advocates Indira Jaising, Vrinda Grover, Aparna Bhat, Nizamuddin Pasha, and Pratik R Bombarde. Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju represented both the state of Gujarat and the Union of India. The convicts, who have now been released, were represented by Senior Advocates Sidharth Luthra, Rishi Malhotra, S Guru Krishnakumar, Advocate Sonia Mathur, and others.

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