Bilkis Bano appeal adjourned as Supreme Court judge opts out of hearing

New Delhi, Dec 13: The Supreme Court hearing an appeal challenging the early release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case has adjourned hearing after a judge recused from hearing the matter.

Bilkis Bano had challenged the early release of the 11 men sentenced to life for gang-raping her and murdering seven of her family members. A Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi were to hear the matter on Tuesday, but Trivedi recused from hearing the matter. The same Bench is currently seized of a batch of petitions against the remission granted to 11 rape and murder convicts in the case.

The release of the 11 convicts had triggered a controversy. Bilkis Bano had moved the Supreme Court against the release on November 30. The 11 men were convicted in 2008 for raping her and killing seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Bench was taking note of a batch of petition filed against the order of the Gujarat government passed on August 10. The government had granted the benefit of remission to the 11 convicts under the 1992 policy. Bilkis Bano has also sought a review of the order of the Supreme Court's May order under which the state government was told to consider the convicts' plea for premature release in accordance with the 1992 policy.

In October the Gujarat government had told the Supreme Court that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had approved the early release of the 11 convicts sentenced to life in 2008. It also cited good behaviour as the reason for the early release of the 11 convicts in the case.

The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a court in Maharashtra by the Supreme Court. A special CBI court had on January 21 2008 sentenced the 11 persons to life imprisonment.