The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that certain paragraphs in a Calcutta high court verdict, which advised adolescent girls to "control sexual urges", were "problematic" and writing such judgments was "absolutely wrong".
There are some convicts who are "more privileged", the Supreme Court said on Thursday while hearing pleas challenging the grant of remissions to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
'The Supreme Court has now demonstrated its capacity to right its own wrongs, and to place the rule of law above all else.'
The Supreme Court on Monday held as maintainable the PIL filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped while seven of her family members were killed during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, against the state government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.
While Justice Kant and Bhuyan delivered the majority verdict, Justice Datta dismissed Ansari's appeal against the Allahabad high court order.
Commencing arguments on the plea challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts, advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for Bilkis Bano, submitted she was brutally gang-raped while she was pregnant and her first child was smashed with a rock to death.
In a special sitting on a Saturday, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that there should be a sense of urgency in such cases and not a 'lackadaisical attitude' of treating the matter as any normal case and just adjourning it.
"Why are our jails overcrowded? Why is the the policy of remission being applied selectively?"
Observing that pregnancy outside marriage is injurious and a cause of stress, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed a rape survivor to undergo medical termination of her over 27-week pregnancy.
The Supreme Court on Monday fixed August 7 for the start of the final hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The SC on May 19 refused to quash the FIRs lodged in Maharashtra and said he could approach the Bombay high court for relief.
"Law is supposed to be a noble profession," the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, and voiced surprise over how can one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots practise law after his conviction, the remission of his sentence notwithstanding.
"Public outcry will not affect our judicial decisions," the Supreme Court asserted on Tuesday, as it began weighing the legality of the remission granted to all the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Kerala high court order suspending the conviction and sentence of Lakshadweep Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Faizal in an attempt to murder case and remanded the matter back to the high court for fresh adjudication in six weeks.
A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Riyaz Chagla noted that while Goswami's comments targeted the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi, he did not make any statement that would cause public disharmony or incite violence between different religious groups.
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