DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 BENCH QUASHES REMISSION, TELLS 11 CONVICTS TO SURRENDER IN TWO WEEKS 58 86 103 ‘Abuse of power’: SC scraps release of Bilkis case rape-murder convicts SC:Pardonobtainedfraudulently...Gujarat Govtactedintandemwithconvict... remissionordersstereotyped,cyclostyled Today is my New Year, I can breathe, this is what justice feels like: Bilkis ANANTHAKRISHNAN G ADITI RAJA THE SUPREME Court Monday struck down the relief granted by the Gujarat government in August 2022 to 11 men who were sentenced to life for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 riots, and ordered them to surrender to jail authorities within two weeks. In its order, a bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remissiontoconvictswas“aninstance of usurpation of jurisdiction and…of abuseof discretion”and that the State “acted in tandem andwascomplicit”withtheconvicts. Remission means a reduction in sentence imposed on a person convicted of a crime. The Supreme Court said Gujarat was not the “appropriate government” to decide on the remission plea of the 11 men convictedforthe “grotesqueand diabolicalcrime...drivenbycommunal hatred”. The bench pointed out that Section 432(7)(b) of The Code of Criminal Procedure,whichdeals with the power of remission, clearly indicates that the State withinwhichtheoffenderissentenced, is the appropriate government to pass an order of remission” and not the one where the crime took place or where “IT FEELS like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from mychest,andIcanbreatheagain. This is what justice feels like.” Hours after the Supreme Court quashed the early release NEW DELHI, JANUARY 8 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EXPRESS NETWORK INDIANTOURISTSIN MALDIVESNEAR DOUBLEIN5YRS P7 THE EDITORIAL PAGE PULLBACKFROM BRINK PAGE 10 VADODARA, JANUARY 8 Justice B V Nagarathna; Justice Ujjal Bhuyan the convict was imprisoned. Bilkis Bano was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter was among the 14 people killed by a mob including the 11 men, on March 3, 2002, during the riots in Limkheda taluka of Gujarat'sDahoddistrict.Shewas pregnant at the time. The 11 men were convicted in 2008 by a CBI court in Mumbai. The Supreme Court had transferred the trial in the case from Gujarat to Maharashtra in 2004 citing “exceptional circumstances”. Followingthewritpetitionof one of the convicts — Radheshyam Shah, who had completed 15 years and 4 months in jail, the Supreme Court had on May 13, 2022, ordered that the Gujarat government was the appropriate government to decide his remission plea in accordance with the state’s 1992 remission and premature release policy. Following the Supreme Court’s May 13, 2022, order in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE EDITORIAL PAGE ANEXTRAORDINARY JUDGMENT By INDIRA JAISING PAGE 10 SC stays Bombay HC What next? Ball in BJP-led order on Pune LS bypoll ‘I have wept tears of relief’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Maharashtra Govt’s court SADAF MODAK INSIDE MUMBAI, JANUARY 8 RULE OF LAW vs RIGHT TO LIBERTY: WHAT SC SAID ALL EYES will now be on the Maharashtra government — whether it extends any relief to the 11 convicts. In its order, the Supreme MORE REPORTS, PAGES 8, 13 granted by the Gujarat government to the 11 convicts, Bilkis Bano, in a statement released to The Indian Express through her advocate, said: “Today is truly the New Year for me”. “I have wept tears of relief. I smiled for the first time in over a year-and-a-half. I have hugged Courthasindicatedthattheconvicts can seek remission, but they need to be in prison for this. "We say so for another reasonin the ● event respondent Nos.3 to 13 (the 11 convicts) are E EXPLAINED 80 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘SC order very encouraging’: Retd Justice Salvi who gave case verdict SADAF MODAK MUMBAI, JANUARY 8 RETIRED JUSTICE UD Salvi, who had in 2008 delivered the judgment sentencing 11 men to life imprisonment for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family in the 2002communal ri- ots, said on Monday, that the SupremeCourt’sdecisiontocancel early release of the convicts was “very encouraging”. “I would like to say the decision is very encouraging. People will have faith in the judiciary,” Justice Salvi told The Indian Expressafter theSupreme Court pronounced its order. The convicts were freed in August 2022, after a Gujarat governmentpanelapprovedtheirapplicationforremissionofsentence. JusticeSalvihadthensaidthe decision should be reconsidered and decided fairly based on all facts before authorities.Thecase hadbeentransferredtoMumbai CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, JANUARY 8 THESUPREMECourtonMonday stayed the judgement of the BombayHighCourtthatdirected theElectionCommissionof India (ECI) to immediately conduct a bypollforthePuneLokSabhaseat which became vacant after the death of MP Girish Bapat. The SC bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachudissuednoticetorespondents in an appeal made by ECI challenging the Bombay HC order and said they will “lay down the law in March or April”. This means the bypolls for Pune Lok Sabha seat cannot be held until SC decides the matter in March or April. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are likely to be held in April or May, this year as the term of the present House ends on June 16. The CJI Chandrachud-led bench said the term of the present remainder of the Lok Sabha will come to an end and the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ex-envoy: ISI tipped off India in 2019 on Qaeda Kashmir plot SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JANUARY 8 PAKISTAN'S SPY agency ISI had tipped off India through the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad about an al-Qaeda plot to carry out an attack in Kashmir in June 2019, which turnedouttobegenuine,former Indian envoy Ajay Bisaria has revealed in his latest book. In his book, titled “Anger Management: The Troubled CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Har roz apne passion par kam karna hai zindagi ki SIP Zindagi ke liye SIP Adhik jaankari ke liye apne MFD/RIA se sampark karein ya scan karein SIP ke fayde Market ki timing se azadi Nivesh raashi chunne ki azadi An Investor Education and Awareness Initiative SIP - Systematic Investment Plan. 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