The Supreme Court today has dismissed the applications filed by eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, who sought additional time to surrender before the concerned jail authorities. A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled that no valid reasons were presented by the convicts to warrant an extension, leading to the rejection of their requests.

The convicts, namely Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana, now face a deadline of January 21 to surrender, as per the Supreme Court's directive issued in its January 8 judgment.

Initially, on January 8, the Supreme Court had ordered the convicts to surrender within two weeks. However, all eleven individuals moved the Court seeking an additional four to six weeks, citing reasons such as domestic responsibilities, winter crop harvesting, old age, and ill health.

The convicts had previously benefited from the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission, based on a May 2022 judgment. The Supreme Court, in that ruling, emphasized that the application of remission should align with the state where the crime occurred, in this case, Gujarat, rather than where the trial took place, which was Maharashtra.

Subsequently, the Gujarat government applied its remission policy to release the convicts, a move that faced legal challenges from various petitioners, including Bilkis Bano. On January 8, the Supreme Court quashed the remission granted by the Gujarat government, asserting that the state lacked the authority to apply its remission policy to these eleven convicts.

Case: Bilkis Yakub Rasool v. Union of India & Ors,

Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 491 of 2022.