Supreme Court: Bilkis Bano case final hearing on August 7

New Delhi: A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Monday directed all the petitioners and the State of Gujarat as also private respondents to file their brief submissions in the Bilkis Bano case, and posted it for final hearing on August 7.
The top court bench, headed by Justice B V Nagarathna and also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, noted that a publication has been effected on June 1 and an affidavit in this regard has been submitted. Similarly in other cases, notice to respondent has been served by direct service or by publication.
This fact is not disputed by the Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta for state of Gujarat and the counsel for other private respondents, the Apex Court noted.
Advocate Vrinda Grover for Bilkis, said that they may be allowed to file a reply to the counter.
The Supreme Court allowed a weeks’ time to file reply. The counsel for private respondents may be allowed 3 weeks time to file their counters, said the bench.
Bilkis Bano had moved the apex judiciary challenging the Gujarat government’s order of remission granted to her 11 convicts who gangraped her and murdered many of her family members in 2002 during the Gujarat riots. UNI