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In the latest editorial episode, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the recent development in the Bilkis Bano Case, where the Supreme Court has reserved its judgment. This case revolves around the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts who were serving life sentences for their involvement in multiple murders and gang rapes, including that of Bilkis Bano, during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. Last year, these life convicts were released on Independence Day, which stirred significant controversy.
Following an 11-day-long hearing that commenced in August, a bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan has decided to withhold their judgment. Additionally, the court has instructed both the Gujarat state and the central government to provide the original records related to the case. The court stated, ""We have listened to the arguments from the legal representatives, and we have requested the State of Gujarat to submit the original records. These records are in Gujarati, so English translations should be provided along with the original records by Monday. The Union of India is also required to submit their original records on Monday. The judgment is now pending.""
During the proceedings, Advocate Shobha Gupta represented Bilkis, the survivor of the rape, while Senior Advocates Indira Jaising, and advocates Vrinda Grover, Aparna Bhat, Nizamuddin Pasha, and Pratik R Bombarde represented various public interest litigants. Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju appeared on behalf of both the State of Gujarat and the Union of India. The convicts who have been released were represented by Senior advocates Sidharth Luthra, Rishi Malhotra, S Guru Krishnakumar, Advocate Sonia Mathur, and others.
#bilkisbano #supremecourt #GlobalHungerIndex #Gujarat #2002 #gujaratriots2002 #rape #crimesagainstwomen #judiciary #bilkisbanocase #HWNews #India
https://linktr.ee/sujitnair
In the latest editorial episode, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the recent development in the Bilkis Bano Case, where the Supreme Court has reserved its judgment. This case revolves around the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts who were serving life sentences for their involvement in multiple murders and gang rapes, including that of Bilkis Bano, during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. Last year, these life convicts were released on Independence Day, which stirred significant controversy.
Following an 11-day-long hearing that commenced in August, a bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan has decided to withhold their judgment. Additionally, the court has instructed both the Gujarat state and the central government to provide the original records related to the case. The court stated, ""We have listened to the arguments from the legal representatives, and we have requested the State of Gujarat to submit the original records. These records are in Gujarati, so English translations should be provided along with the original records by Monday. The Union of India is also required to submit their original records on Monday. The judgment is now pending.""
During the proceedings, Advocate Shobha Gupta represented Bilkis, the survivor of the rape, while Senior Advocates Indira Jaising, and advocates Vrinda Grover, Aparna Bhat, Nizamuddin Pasha, and Pratik R Bombarde represented various public interest litigants. Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju appeared on behalf of both the State of Gujarat and the Union of India. The convicts who have been released were represented by Senior advocates Sidharth Luthra, Rishi Malhotra, S Guru Krishnakumar, Advocate Sonia Mathur, and others.
#bilkisbano #supremecourt #GlobalHungerIndex #Gujarat #2002 #gujaratriots2002 #rape #crimesagainstwomen #judiciary #bilkisbanocase #HWNews #India
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of Editorial.
00:03 You know, every night when I sit in front of you and comment on different topics,
00:09 I don't comment as an expert. I am no expert.
00:13 What I try and do is, I try and look at things from a layman's perspective.
00:18 I try and derive my understanding from a layman's perspective.
00:23 And I keep my thoughts in front of you from a layman's perspective.
00:29 I talk what I understand as a layman.
00:32 I have two topics today. My topic number one is,
00:38 Supreme Court reserves judgment on plea's challenging premature release
00:43 of 11 convicts in Bilkis Banu's case. That's my topic number one.
00:48 My topic number two is, India ranks 111 on Global Hunger Index in 2023.
00:58 Let's get right into the show and let's talk about it.
01:01 The Supreme Court reserved their judgment against the Gujarat government.
01:13 The Gujarat government who had granted remission to 11 convicts, the same 11 convicts
01:19 who gang-raped Bilkis Banu, who killed her family members. These people were set free
01:27 under remission and the court reserves its judgment. The thing is, the hearing was going
01:35 on 11 long days. The hearing was going on for 11 long days starting from August. From August to
01:41 now, 11 days was spent on hearing this case. And today the judges asked for original records
01:51 from both, from the Union government and the State government and reserved their comments.
01:57 Reserved their judgment by apologies.
01:58 Okay, just to brush your memory, let me tell you the exact case. On March 3rd, 2002,
02:11 Bilkis Banu, who was then a 21-year-old girl, was 5 months pregnant. She was gang-raped
02:20 in Dahod district in Gujarat during the post-Godhra criminal riots.
02:26 7 of her family members including her 3-year-old daughter was also killed by these rioters.
02:31 You see, she knew these rapists. She knew these murderers. They were all neighbours.
02:39 So therefore, she could actually tell the names of these people because she knew, she almost
02:44 grew up in front of these murderers, these rapists. In 2008, after a trial was transferred
02:52 to Maharashtra, a session court in Mumbai convicted the accused under section 302,
02:56 376(2)(e) and (g), read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code and handed them a life sentence.
03:07 This is the story. During this hearing, the way her child was killed is described.
03:16 Now I have it in front of me. But I can't, I don't want to read this. It's too graphic even for
03:24 verbal description. But I will talk about one statement that Indira Jai Singh, one of the
03:34 advocates fighting for Bilkis Banu case, what she said, "The conscience of nation is reflected in
03:43 the three organs of the state and therefore the judgment this court will render will be a reflection
03:50 of the conscience of the nation." I found this line to be so true.
03:56 If those people walk free after committing gang rape, killing children, seven members of our
04:07 family, if they walk free, it reflects all our conscience, doesn't it? Doesn't it? It reflects
04:16 the conscience of the nation because as a nation, we're saying, "Theek hai, it's okay, ho gaya."
04:22 Is that what you're saying? And I said in the beginning of my editorial that as a layman,
04:29 I talk as a layman, I'm not an expert. I do not understand law. I do not, I'm not an expert in law.
04:34 But as a layman, I'm asking you, is that what you want? Do you agree to it?
04:40 Is that what our consciousness as a nation? That somebody who raped, gang raped,
04:47 a 21-year-old girl, killed her children. We let them go. Killed her entire family. We let them go.
04:56 This is my question number one. My question number two is, you see,
05:01 something similar had happened in 2012 and that was Nirbhaya, an innocent girl. An innocent girl
05:08 was again gang raped, brutally gang raped, brutally hurt. Four convicts were hanged to death.
05:19 Four convicts were hanged to death, March 20th, 2020. After seven years, it took seven years for
05:27 the judgment to happen, but they were hanged to death. A lot of us said it's correct. It's a lesson.
05:33 Tell me, in one case, where a girl is gang raped, her child is murdered,
05:52 her family is murdered and those convicts are let out under the remission policy and in one case,
06:01 and rightly so, one case and rightly so, rightly so, in Nirbhaya's case, where we caught the convict
06:09 and we hung them, rightly so. But my point is, how are these two cases different?
06:17 What is the Supreme Court reserving its judgment for? What are we even debating?
06:24 If hanging Nirbhaya, rapist was right, hanging or whatever, life imprisonment in this case
06:34 of Bilkis Bhanu, rapist is also correct. How can they be two different?
06:40 As a layman, I do not understand this. I do not, this logic, I just don't get it.
06:47 And that's why it took me a lot of time to even talk about this. I don't get this.
06:53 Both are the same. Two children of India were raped, brutally raped, both of them.
07:04 In one case, her family was killed in front of her.
07:12 One group of rapist gets hung and the other group of rapist is set free. And our courts are
07:19 deliberating. Is it correct? Was it justice? What is the law? And so on and so forth.
07:26 We are inspecting records. I just didn't get this. I just don't get it. I am sure the honourable court
07:34 has a reason. I am sure the honourable court knows what they are doing. But I don't. As a layman,
07:39 I don't. I am wondering what is the deal. And that is the question I wanted to ask tonight.
07:48 Let us go to my next topic.
07:50 Like I always say, some topics are boring. You know, a lot of people tell me,
07:58 "Eh, eh, kya hai yeh? Roj roj." But you know what? For hunger index, we rank 111 amongst 125
08:07 countries. Our people are hungry. We have no right to sit here and praise ourselves.
08:13 We have no right to sit here and call ourselves Vishwa Guru and call ourselves economically
08:20 the fastest growing economy and economic superpower and GDP and all. We have no rights.
08:26 Because till such time that one person in our country sleeps hungry, we have no right for that.
08:33 And here we are 111th in the country. You tell me there are 111 countries whose people get fed.
08:40 111 countries above us. And maybe 14 countries below us who are worse than us.
08:49 See, I question our priorities. What exactly is our priority?
08:59 What exactly is our priority? Is our priority going around the world and saying how powerful
09:05 we are or how well connected we are and how we influence certain wars and how we influence
09:10 certain region or how we have other presidents coming and touching our feet? Is that our
09:15 priority? Is that what we get enamoured by? Or that child who is sleeping empty stomach tonight,
09:21 who should we be prioritising? What should we be prioritising?
09:27 Somehow our priorities seem to be going wrong. What benefit if we go globe trotting
09:34 and our children are hungry? What benefit is it? How are we calling ourselves successful and great
09:44 and developing and all of that? How are we calling all of that when our people are hungry? And why
09:50 are we not giving impetus to the fact that we are one of the worst countries when it comes to hunger
09:57 index? We are one of the worst. There are just 14 countries below us. 111 countries feed their
10:03 people better than we do. I don't understand this concept. A lot of people may turn back and say,
10:11 all these ratings are wrong. This also I don't understand. When ratings are for us, it is good.
10:17 When ratings are against us, it is all conspiracy. I don't understand this funda either.
10:25 When news is for us, news is right. You see, New York Times said this. Washington Post said this.
10:35 News is against us. Western media is always against us. I quite don't understand where
10:42 our priority lies and I quite don't understand how do we accept all this as the citizens of
10:48 this country? How do we accept all these narratives? You see, the kind of advertising
10:55 that these politicians release, and I am not just talking about central government and I am not just
10:59 talking about Prime Minister Modi. I am talking about lot of other state governments also.
11:03 The kind of advertising that they release for which they spend crores of rupees,
11:08 if you spend that money in your midday meals, at least some of these kids will get fed.
11:13 Some of these kids will get fed. Why don't we understand that and why don't we question that?
11:21 Every time you see an ad in the newspaper, do not praise that leader. In fact, criticize that
11:28 leader for spending your money and advertising his product. If Live Boy advertises, Hindustan
11:34 never spends the money. You don't. Likewise, if a minister has to advertise, let him spend the
11:41 money. Why are they taking the money from your pocket? That's the point I wanted to make.
11:49 Till I see you next time, that's tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Namaskar.
11:54 [Music]
11:59 [Music]