The Supreme Court has asked the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments to respond to appeals by two convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case. Justices Rajesh Bindal and Vijay Bishnoi issued notices and set a hearing for May 5. The appeals challenge the Bombay high court's 2017 conviction and life sentence.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments on appeals filed by Bipinchand Kanaiyalal Joshi and Pradip Ramanlal Modhiya. The two convicts are challenging their conviction and life imprisonment sentence handed down by the Bombay high court in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case on May 4, 2017. A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Vijay Bishnoi scheduled the matter for hearing on May 5. Senior advocates Sidharth Luthra and Sonia Mathur represented the convicts. Luthra explained to the court that the delay in challenging the high court order stemmed from intervening events: the Gujarat government granted remission on August 10, 2022, leading to their release. Bilkis Bano challenged this in the Supreme Court, which quashed it in January 2024, ruling that remission power lay with Maharashtra and Gujarat had usurped it. The convicts then surrendered and are now in a Gujarat jail. The case arose amid the Gujarat riots following the February 27, 2002, torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. Bilkis Bano, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was gangraped while fleeing with her family, who suffered several deaths. The CBI investigated after a Supreme Court order in December 2003. In August 2004, the trial shifted to Mumbai. A designated court sentenced 11 convicts to life under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 376(2)(g) (gang rape) in 2008, upheld by the high court.