Bilkis Bano: India Supreme Court orders gangrape convicts back to prison

India's top court has cancelled a 2022 Gujarat government order allowing the premature release of 11 men who were convicted for the gangrape of a pregnant Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano.

The men will have to return to prison in a fortnight, the order said.

The convicts, who had also murdered 14 members of Bano's family, were serving life sentences.

They were part of a Hindu mob that attacked Bano and her family during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.

Their release in August 2022 had caused global outrage, especially after they were accorded a heroes' welcome as they stepped outside the Godhra jail, with relatives giving them sweets and touching their feet to show respect.

The Supreme Court heard several petitions, including one from Bano, challenging the convicts' release. In her petition, Bano had said that the premature release of the men had "shaken the conscience of the society". Calling it "one of the most gruesome crimes this country has ever seen", she said the release had left her "shell-shocked and completely numb".

Reading from the judgement on Monday, the two-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, said the state of Gujarat was "not competent" to pass the remission order in the case since the men were tried and convicted in a court in the state of Maharashtra.

"The government of the state where the offender is sentenced is the appropriate government to grant remission, not the government of the state where the offence took place," she said.

The bench added that since the government's remission order had been nullified, the 11 convicts must return to prison within two weeks.

"Justice encompasses not just the rights of the convicts but also the rights of the victims" and the "primary duty" of the