However, the bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan also questioned whether the convicts in this case had been given any preferential treatment.
“Are some convicts being treated differently is the question? Are some convicts more privileged than others?” Justice Nagarathna asked.
Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra who appeared for the convicts began to respond by saying,
“Every convict …”
” … is not the same?” quipped Justice Nagarathna.
“My lady took the words out of my mouth,” Luthra replied, smiling.
The top court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the decision of the Gujarat government to grant remission to 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Gujarat government had granted remission to the convicts following a May 2022 judgment of the apex court, which came on a plea moved by one of the convicts, Radhyesham.
The convicts, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, were released by the Gujarat government ahead of the assembly polls in the State.
This led to the present batch of pleas before the top court challenging the remission.
Source: Barandbench
