'centre's nod? Equality before law? ' how experts view release of rape convicts
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Speaking to THE QUINT, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court said: "This is, of course, a strange case where the crime was committed in Gujarat; the trial was
then transferred to Maharashtra for various reasons. Eventually the appeals were also disposed by the Bombay High Court. However, the convicts were undergoing their sentence in a Gujarat
prison as the offence was committed there and the case was transferred out of state for trial only." Thereby, Ayyubi pointed out, when one of the convicts approached the Bombay High
Court, the high court was of the view that the appropriate government for the purposes of remission would be the Gujarat government as it is where the offence was committed. Later on,
another convict approached the Gujarat High Court, but the high court then said that the Maharashtra government would be the appropriate government and not Gujarat. "So two divergent
positions emerged here," Ayyubi said. Ayyubi pointed out, however, that the top court order also records that the Gujarat government had submitted that the Maharashtra government would
be the appropriate government, but had gone ahead with finally asking the Gujarat government to make the decision. “In the same breath, the Supreme Court also directed that the Gujarat
government will consider the remission under the policy of 1992 which was applicable at the time of conviction,” Ayyubi noted. STATE GOVERNMENT COULD NOT HAVE ORDERED THIS REMISSION WITHOUT
THE UNION GOVERNMENT'S NOD: ADVOCATE VRINDA GROVER Meanwhile, in conversation with _Mojo Story_, Advocate Vrinda Grover stated that as per Section 435 CrPC, the power of remission
awarded to the state government, in a case investigated by the CBI (agency empowered to make investigation into an offence under any Central Act), shall not be exercised by the state
government except in consultation with the central government. This, Grover pointed out, is "the same central government which puts out a policy saying no rape convict is to be enlarged
on remission.”