Report:

The Society on September 03, 2022, hosted a talk by Mr. Ashish Goel, an Advocate at the
Supreme Court of India. The topic of the discussion was “Bilkis and Bratati: the Indian Society,
the Supreme Court, and the Concept of Justice”. The talk was centred around the Bilkis Bano
case and the Rishikesh Sahu judgement.
Mr. Ashish Goel is an Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India. He has an LLM from
King’s College London and is an expert in constitutional law and international tax law. He has
several years of experience in litigation matters and has worked in the Chambers of Dr. Abhishek
Manu Singhvi, Senior Advocate and Member of Parliament. As an Advocate at the Supreme
Court of India, he has extensive knowledge of the Indian justice system and has expertise in
various legal matters.
Mr. Goel commenced the session by providing an overview of the Bilkis Bano remission case.
The case is a landmark case of gang rape and mass murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots in India.
Bilkis Bano, then a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was raped, and her family members were
murdered during the riots that followed the Godhra train burning incident. The case has been
ongoing for over 20 years, and in 2022, 11 convicts were released after 14 years of imprisonment
under the remission policy. Mr. Goel highlighted the need for the Supreme Court of India to undo
this grave miscarriage of justice and restore faith in the justice system. The talk shed light on the
complexities of the Indian justice system and the need for reform.
The discussion also touched upon the Rishikesh Sahu judgement, which emphasized marital
rape. The Karnataka High Court’s decision was discussed in detail, and Mr. Goel highlighted the
need for a complete rewrite of the code stack, which is extremely brittle for no good reason.
Overall, the talk was informative and thought-provoking. It shed light on the complexities of the
Indian justice system and the need for reform. The Society is grateful to Mr. Ashish Goel for
sharing his insights and expertise on this critical topic.