The Gujarat government has said that it will give gang rape survivor Bilkis Bano Rs 50 lakh, a job and a house. This came after the Supreme Court added a clarification to its April order.

In April, the apex court had ordered the Gujarat government to provide Bano with a job and accommodation apart from Rs 50 lakh saying that she and her family had wandered around aimlessly for over 17 years since her gang rape in March 2002. Her lawyers had told a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi that Bano, her husband Yakub, and five children, including 16-year-old daughter Hazra, had lived in over 20 different locations out of fear of retribution.

But the Gujarat government did not implement the order for five months. When CJI Gogoi asked the Gujarat government to explain the delay, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the state government was going to file a review petition against the April ruling. Mehta suggested that the state government wanted the court to spell out that the compensation had been ordered in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case.

“We don’t have to search for elaborate principles of law to decide that the victim must be adequately compensated. Time and again this court has held that quantum of compensation has to be judged according to the loss suffered,” held the Supreme Court on its April order.

—India Legal Bureau