The Supreme Court on
Wednesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea by Bilkis Bano,
who was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, against the remission of
sentence of 11 convicts in the case.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha
and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta,
that the new bench will be formed.
Gupta mentioned the matter for urgent hearing and said that a new
bench needs to be constituted.
"I will have a bench constituted. Will look at it this
evening," the CJI said.
Earlier, on January 24, the hearing on Bano's plea challenging the
remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the gang-rape case by the Gujarat
government could not be held in the top court as the judges concerned were
hearing a matter related to passive euthanasia as part of a five-judge
Constitution bench.
Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the
gang-rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the
apex court's May 13, 2022 order on a plea by a convict.
Seven members of Bilkis Bano's family were also killed during the
2002 Gujarat riots.
In its May 13, 2022 order, the apex court had asked the state government
to consider the plea of a convict for premature release in terms of its policy
of July 9, 1992 which was applicable on the date of conviction and decide it
within a period of two months.
All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government
and released on August 15, last year.
Bano's review plea against the May 13, 2022 order, however, was
dismissed by the top court in December last year.