Bilkis Bano case: SC to hear pleas against release of 11 convicts after three weeks
New Delhi, Sep 9: The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear after three weeks the pleas challenging the remission of sentence and release of 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of her seven family members during the Gujarat riots.
The apex court asked the counsel for the Gujarat government to place before it the relevant records within two weeks.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna.
On August 25, the top court had sought responses from the Centre and the Gujarat government to a petition challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the case.
The court had issued notice on a plea filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, journalist Revathy Laul and activist Roop Rekha Rani.
It had asked the petitioners to implead the 11 convicted persons, who have been granted remission, as parties in the matter.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a separate plea in the top court challenging the grant of remission and her petition was also listed for hearing on Friday.
During the hearing, advocate Rishi Malhotra, appearing for one of the 11 convicts, said the petitioners have on Thursday filed an application to implead these persons as respondents.
"Notices have to go to the impleaded respondents," he said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, said they have complied with the apex court's earlier direction.
"Why you have filed an application for adjournment?" the bench asked Malhotra, who said notices have to go to the impleaded respondents and they have to file their replies.
He said multiple petitions have been filed in the matter.
"I am against this impleadment business in criminal matter," he said, while objecting to the locus of the petitioners.
The bench told Malhotra that 11 persons have been impleaded as party respondents in the lead matter and he can accept notices on their behalf.
Malhotra said he has been appearing for only one of them and he would have to take instructions.
The bench said copy of the petitions be served to him as well as the counsel for the state.
Malhotra said issuance of notice would not be necessary in the other petitions as they are asking for the same thing.
The bench asked when the line and cause of action was the same, why multiple pleas have been filed.
One of the advocates, who was appearing for the petitioners in a separate plea filed in the matter, said the prayers in their petition are slightly different.
The bench asked the state's counsel to file the relevant records within two weeks and said rejoinder, if any, be submitted within one week thereafter.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.
The 11 men convicted in the case walked out free from the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.
While hearing the matter last month, the top court had observed that the question is whether there was application of mind while considering remission and whether it was within the parameters of law.
The plea referred to the sequence of events of the case recorded in judicial files and said, "It is submitted that on such facts, no right thinking authority applying any test under any extant policy would consider it fit to grant remission to persons who are found to have been involved in the commission of such gruesome acts."
"It is further submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the respondent No.1 (state of Gujarat) also bore allegiance to a political party, and also was sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not an authority that was entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand," it said and quoted media reports to buttress its contention.
The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.
A special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21, 2008, sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven members of her family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.
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SC wants to know if FIRs filed over suicides of IIT student, NEET aspirant
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought to know if FIRs were registered after suicides of a IIT Kharagpur student and a NEET aspirant in Kota, Rajasthan, came to light.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan directed its registry to call for a report from both places at the earliest.
The top court noted a 22-year-old student studying in IIT, Kharagpur, was found hanging in his hostel room on May 4, 2025.
"The deceased was a three-year civil engineering student. His body was found hanging in his room in the Madan Mohan Malaviya Hall. The student was identified as Mohammad Asif Qamar from Bihar’s Sheohar District," the bench noted.
The top court went on, "The press reporting indicates that just moments before his death, he was on a video call with his friend in Delhi. This is one of those unfortunate suicides by a student for which we have constituted the task-force to work on the various issues relating to students suicide."
The top court previously ordered the formation of a national task force, headed by former top court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat, to address the mental health concerns of students to prevent suicides in higher educational institutions.
The apex court said it was taking cognisance of the matter with a view to ascertain whether the management or administration of IIT, Kharagpur lodged an FIR with the local police station in accordance with its earlier directions.
It also took into account another case of suicide by a NEET aspirant who hanged herself at her room in Parshavanath area in the city ahead of the National Medical Entrants Examination scheduled on May 11.
"It is reported that the girl was under 18 years of age and hailed from Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh. She had been living with her parents in Kota (Rajasthan) and for the past several years, she was preparing for NEET-UG at a coaching institute," the court added.
The bench observed it was reportedly the fourteenth case of suicide by a coaching student in Kota, Rajasthan in 2025.
"Since January, 2025, a total of 17 cases of suicides by coaching students were reported in Kota last year. We would like to know whether an FIR has been registered in connection with this suicide also or not," the bench said.
The matter then was posted on May 13.
Outlining a disturbing pattern of student suicides in educational institutions, the apex court on March 24 directed Delhi Police to register an FIR and probe the suicidal deaths of two IIT-Delhi students from the SC/ST community.
Saying it was "high time" that it took cognisance of the "serious issue", the court ordered formulation of comprehensive and effective guidelines to address and mitigate the underlying causes contributing to such distress among students.
The bench directed the Centre to deposit Rs 20 lakh with the registry within two weeks as an outlay for the initial operations of the NTF.
Noting a "disturbing pattern" of student suicides were being reported from various educational institutes, the apex court said these tragedies underscored the urgent need for a more robust, comprehensive and responsive mechanism to address various factors which compel students to resort to taking their own lives.
