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The
court directed the men to surrender to prison authorities within
two weeks, the lawyer added.
The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she was
gang-raped and seven of her relatives, including her three-year
old daughter, murdered during the riots that swept through the
state, killing more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Gujarat's chief minister at the
time and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party still
rules the state.
The men, convicted in early 2008, were ordered freed by the
Gujarat government in August 2022 after the prison they were
being held in recommended their release considering the time
they had served and their good behavior.
Their release drew condemnation from the victim's husband,
lawyers, and politicians. Local media reported that several
petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the
remission, including one by the victim herself.
In its verdict on Monday, the court held that Gujarat did not
have the authority to reduce the sentence since the trial had
been moved to Mumbai, making neighboring Maharashtra state
responsible for the decision.
"The court has said that the law is clear, the appropriate
government is the government where the accused are tried and
sentenced," advocate Vrinda Grover, among the lawyers appearing
for the petitioners, told reporters outside the court.
The bench of two judges also held that a 2022 order of the top
court, which directed the Gujarat government to consider
remission, was obtained fraudulently and by suppressing material
facts, local media reported.
"Gujarat government usurped the powers of Maharashtra
government...which in our opinion is a nullity," the court said,
according to news website Live Law.
The Gujarat government will be able to comment on the verdict
only after going through the detailed order, a senior state
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they are
not authorized to speak to the media.
There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from the 11 men.
(Additional reporting by Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad; Editing by
YP Rajesh, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ros Russell)
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