Supreme Court dismisses Bilkis Bano case convicts’ plea to extend time to surrender before jail authorities

In a landmark verdict on January 8, the Supreme Court cancelled the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to the 11 men who gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered seven members of her family.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the applications filed by convicts in Bilkis Bano case seeking an extension of four to six weeks to surrender before the concerned jail authorities.

A bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the applications filed by gang-rape and murder convicts seeking permission to stretch the January 21 deadline to surrender have no merit. The batch of applications filed by 10 of the 11 convicts cited reasons such as ill health, family responsibilities, care for aged and ailing parents and upcoming harvest season.

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On Thursday, the top court agreed to urgently list these applications for hearing and ordered the registry to obtain directions from the Chief Justice of India to constitute a special bench of Justice Nagarathna and Justice Bhuyan.

This special bench had earlier set aside the “stereotyped and cyclostyled” remission orders passed by the Gujarat government and asked 11 convicts to surrender before jail authorities within a period of two weeks.