BJP governments show eyes to Supreme Court, refuse to show file of release of 11 convicts of Bilkis

Why the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were released, the Government of Gujarat and the Center are hesitating to give an answer even in the Supreme Court. The top court had asked both the BJP governments to present the file for the release of the culprits before them. But during the hearing, the Additional Solicitor General did not reach with the file. When the court warned of contempt, he said that he would challenge the decision of the Supreme Court, under which the Central and Gujarat governments have been asked to present the file of the release of the convicts in the court. The Additional Solicitor General appeared for both the Governments of Gujarat and the Centre.

The attitude of the Supreme Court turned very harsh when ASG Raju did not bring the file for the release of the culprits. Justice KM Joseph said what is the problem with you showing us the file. You didn’t even file a review against our decision. This act of yours comes in the category of contempt. We are asking for the file from you and you are continuously doing hilahwali. This attitude is not right at all. Justice Joseph said that if you do not give us any valid reason for not showing the file, then we will make an assessment on our own.

The Gujarat government was not bound to accept the decision of the Center – said Justice

Justice Joseph said that no government is above the law. He said that if the central government had agreed to Bilkis’ decision to release the convicts, then at least the state government should have used its mind. He said that there was no such pressure on the Gujarat government in which it was bound to accept the Centre’s decision. She could decide on her own whether the culprits of such a heinous case should be released or not. The court said that the attitude adopted by the Gujarat government cannot be accepted in any way.

Justice Nagaratna said- The convicts are filing reply one by one, this is an attempt to postpone the hearing

Bilkis case was heard before the bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagaratna. Both the judges objected to the government’s hesitation several times. Justice BV Nagaratna even went so far as to say that efforts are being made to postpone the hearing of the case. On one date, one convict files his reply and the other convict demands another date to file his affidavit. He said that if it continues like this, it will take a long time to complete the hearing of the case. The court found this behavior of the convicts very bad.

The BJP’s Gujarat government had released the convicts of Bilkis on 15 August 2022. Bilkis appealed to the Supreme Court against his release but the court refused to hear it. Later CJI DY Chandrachud constituted a special bench for the hearing.