In a resounding blow to immunity for security and armed forces personnel in disturbed areas under the grip of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered a time-bound CBI probe into the deaths of over 80 civilians, allegedly killed by police and armed forces in the north-eastern State of Manipur during the heights of insurgency.
In a 26-page judgment, a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit refused to entertain the Centre’s argument that these crimes were “vintage” and there was no need to re-visit them.
Centre’s argument
The government tried to placate the court, saying the families of the victims were compensated for the loss of their loved ones and nothing more needed to be done.
The Centre justified the years of neglect or lack of investigation by the Manipur Police, blaming “local pressures” and the “ground situation” in the sensitive State.
But the court stood steadfast. Parents and families of the victims had approached the court for answers in the cases of 1,528 persons finished off in what they termed as “extra-judicial killings”, allegedly committed by the police and “personnel in uniform of the armed forces of the Union.”
Justice Lokur, who wrote the judgment, said even the “dos and don’ts and the Ten Commandments of the Army Chief” accepts the ethos and principle that use of excessive force or retaliatory force by uniformed personnel resulting in death necessitates a thorough enquiry.
To the government’s stand that these “fake encounter” cases were too old to be raked up, the court said, “if a crime has been committed, a crime which involves the death of a person who is possibly innocent, it cannot be overlooked only because of a lapse of time.”
To the Centre’s stand that the State bowed to local pressures, the court replied that if there was a breakdown of law in Manipur, the Centre was obliged to step in. “Merely because the State has not taken any action and has allowed time to go by, it cannot take advantage of the delay to scuttle an inquiry,” the court held.
Noting that the court cannot shut its doors on the victims and aggrieved families of those who suffered losses of life and property,the court retorted that mere payment of compensation cannot douse the pain and agony of the kin of those who were killed.
“This [compensation] cannot override the law of the land. Otherwise all heinous crimes would get settled through payment of monetary compensation,” Justice Lokur observed.
The court noted how not a single FIR was registered against any personnel of the Manipur police for all these years. Instead FIRs were lodged against the dead and their kith and kin. “Under these circumstances, it would be inappropriate for us to depend upon the Manipur police to carry out an impartial investigation... it would be appropriate if the CBI is required to look into these fake encounters or use of excessive or retaliatory force,” the court ordered.
The Bench ordered the CBI Director to nominate a group of five officers to go through the records of the cases, lodge necessary FIRs, complete the investigation by December 31, 2017 and prepare charge sheets, wherever necessary.
Of the 1,528 deaths alleged in the petition, the court could substantiate 655. It negated deaths alleged through written and oral complaints, eye-witness and family accounts. The current CBI investigation would be on cases sourced through Commissions of Inquiry, judicial officers, the High Court concerned and the National Human Rights Commission.
The court ordered the CBI chief to inform it about the composition of the probe team in two weeks.
