The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till July 11 the hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members in 2002.
A bench of justices KM Joseph, BV Nagarathna and Ahsanuddin Amanullah directed the issuance of notices to the convicts, who remained unserved even now.
The bench also directed the publication of notices in local newspapers, including in Gujarati and English, against the convicts who could not be served notices.
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Advocate Shobha Gupta who appeared for Bano told the Court that in her petition, except for Pradip Ramanlal Modhiya, one of the convicts, all remaining 10 convicts were served.
Even with regard to Modhiya, the Gujarat police had pasted the notice on the door of his residence as his phone was switched off and elder members of his house refused to take it on his behalf.
She insisted that pasting of the notice was sufficient proof of service and the Court should proceed with the case hearing.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appearing for the state informed that when the Court is not satisfied with the service of notice, it can resort to publication of public notice through newspapers.
However, he added, “The power of the Court under Article 142 is wide. Court may not allow procedures to defeat the process of hearing.”
“Let there be no further technicalities,” said the bench as it directed the convicts named in all the petitions yet to be served with notice of the Court proceedings to be issued fresh notices.
The Court registry was directed to provide a list of the unserved convicts in three days.
In addition, the Court directed publication of public notice in two vernacular Gujarati newspapers in the area where they reside.
The Court stated that the public notice will indicate the next date of hearing as July 11.
As regards Bano’s petition, the Court restricted the public notice to be issued only for Modhiya.
When the matter was heard last week, the Court was faced with similar technical hurdles with the lawyers appearing for some of the convicts seeking time to file their responses.
The Court took note and had observed, “It is obvious that you do not want the hearing to be conducted by this bench.”
Justice Joseph retires on June 16 when the Supreme Court is on its summer break. His last working day in court will be May 19, after which the vacation starts.
“It’s obvious that they don’t want me to hear the matter. It’s very, very clear…we issued the notice on the first day this matter came to us. That’s the best and the maximum we could do. But is this the way the matter can proceed?” asked the judge, sharing the bench with justice Nagarathna
On April 18, the top court questioned the Gujarat government over the remission granted to the 11 convicts, saying the gravity of the offence should have been considered.
All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year.
Bano was 21, and five months’ pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing the violence during the 2002 riots, and her three-year-old daughter was one of the seven people killed.
