The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Gujarat Government for the premature release of 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano gangrape and killing of seven members of her family including her three-year-old daughter during the 2002 Godhra riots as court said that the massacre can’t be compared with a single murder as it was a crime against a society.

Observing “today it is Bilkis, tomorrow it can be anybody”, the court granted the Central and Gujarat governments time till May 1 to take a call on whether it wishes to file review of its (top court’s) Mar 27 order, the top court directed them to be ready with files relating to grant of remission of sentence to 11 convicts leading to their premature release.  On March 27 the court had asked the government to bring original files relating to grant of remission.

Taking a dim view of the way the exercise of premature release of 11 convicts was undertaken, a bench of Justice K M Joseph and Justice B V Nagarathna said when remission is considered in such heinous crimes affecting the society at large, the power must be exercised keeping in mind public interest.

“The question is whether the govt applied its mind, what material formed the basis of its decision, etc…(Judicial) order requiring convicts to be in jail for rest of their natural life…(they were) released by executive order…Today it is this lady (Bilkis). Tomorrow, it can be you or me. There must be objective standards…If you don’t give us reason, we will draw our own conclusions,” Justice Joseph observed.

“How can you compare apples with oranges? How can you compare the murder of a single person with the mass murder of multiple persons?”, the bench said while hearing a batch of petitions challenging premature release of the convicts, including that filed by the victim herself – Bilkis Bano.

The court said that every action should be for public good, and questioned the parole given to the, now released, convicts ranging between 1000-1500 days and asked if the same is available for normal citizens.

Though power exists for the grant of remission but the yardstick for the exercise of this power is very high, the bench said

The court said that the matter will be listed for final hearing on May 2.