Bilkis Bano plea | SC judge Justice Bela M Trivedi recuses from hearing against early release of convicts

The bench did not specify any reason for the recusal of Justice Trivedi.

Supreme Court judge Bela M Trivedi on December 13, 2022 recused herself from hearing a plea filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped and seven members of her family killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots, challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the case by the State government.

As soon as a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the matter for hearing, Justice Rastogi said that his sister judge will not like to hear the case.

“List the matter before a bench in which one of us is not a member”, the bench headed by Justice Rastogi ordered.

The bench did not specify any reason for the recusal of Justice Trivedi.

Bano, who has also filed a separate plea seeking a review of the apex court's May 13, 2022 order on a plea by a convict in which it had asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea for premature release of the convicts in terms of its policy of July 9, 1992 about deciding a remission petition within a period of two months.

In her plea against the grant of remission which had led to the release of the convicts on August 15, Bano has said the state government passed a mechanical order completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court.

Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.