The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on
November 29 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.
A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C T Ravikumar
directed that the reply filed by the Gujarat government be made available to
all parties.
The petitioners have been given time to file their
reply to the affidavit filed by the Gujarat government.
"A counter has been filed by the Gujarat
government. Let counter affidavit be made available to all counsels," the
bench said.
The Gujarat government on Monday had told the apex
court that petitioners challenging the remission are nothing but an
"interloper" and a "busybody".
It had also said that since the investigation in the
case was carried out by the CBI, it had obtained "suitable orders"
for grant of remission of the convicts from the Centre.
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.