Jahanvi Agarwal
On August 17th, the Supreme Court of India questioned the Gujarat State Government if its Premature Release Policy applied “selectively” only.
When hearing a number of petitions challenging the early release of the 11 men who were sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-raping Bilkis Bano and for the murders of seven people during the riots in Gujarat in 2002, Justice B.V. Nagarathna shot the question at Additional Solicitor-General S.V. Raju, who was representing Gujarat. On August 10, 2022, the 11 men received their remission.
Justice Nagarathna queried that:
“Why is the policy of remission applied selectively? Opportunity to reform and reintegrate must be given to every prisoner, not only to a few prisoners.”
Ms. Bano is one of the petitioners who challenged the release of 11 prisoners under the State’s Premature Release Policy from 1992.
The early release of the convicts has also been contested in other writ petitions submitted by people including CPI (M) leader Subhashini Ali and Trinamool Congress leader Mahia Moitra.
According to an affidavit submitted by the State of Gujarat, the Home Ministry had recommended their release despite opposition from the Superintendent of Police, CBI, Special Crime Branch, Mumbai, and the Special Judge (CBI) of Greater Bombay.
Gujarat stated in its affidavit that:
“All the prisoners have completed 14 plus years in the prison under life imprisonment and opinions of the authorities concerned have been obtained as per the premature release policy of 1992 and submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs vide letter dated June 28, 2022 and sought the approval of the Government of India. The Government of India conveyed the concurrence/approval of the Central government under Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for premature release of 11 prisoners in a letter on July 11, 2022.”
Contrary to popular perceptions, the early release of the 11 convicts was not authorized by a circular that allowed remission to prisoners as part of the celebrations of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav,” according to the State.
Case Name: Bilkis Yakub Rasool v. Union of India & Ors
Diary Number: 491/2022
Bench: Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan