Overview
- Justices Rajesh Bindal and Vijay Bishnoi issued notice on special leave petitions and listed the case for hearing on May 5, 2026.
- The petitioners are Bipinchand Kanaiyalal Joshi, also known as Lala Doctor, and Pradip Ramanlal Modhiya, represented by senior advocates Sidharth Luthra and Sonia Mathur.
- The appeals challenge the Bombay High Court’s May 4, 2017 judgment that upheld life sentences for 11 men for offences including murder and gang rape.
- The case stems from attacks during the 2002 Gujarat violence in which Bilkis Bano, then five months pregnant, was gangraped and several relatives, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed.
- Key background includes the Supreme Court’s 2003 transfer of the probe to the CBI, 2008 convictions by a Mumbai special court, and the top court’s January 2024 order setting aside Gujarat’s 2022 remission and directing the convicts to surrender.