Apex court issues notices to Centre, States & NHRC
Friday, 13 April 2012 23:59
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre, States and the NHRC after a NGO petitioned it seeking an independent probe into encounter deaths across the country.
Dishing out comparative statistics, it pointed out how Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had numerous such killings but never came under scrutiny even as human rights activists unnecessarily dragged Gujarat to the apex court.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai posted it along with a bunch of petitions already pending with regard to Gujarat before the same Bench.
The NGO Centre for Human Rights and Justice, backed by the Gujarat Government, blamed certain Mumbai-based human rights activists for pursuing encounter deaths in Gujarat and demanded the Court to set up an independent monitoring agency in every state on the lines of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the genuineness of each encounter over the past 10 years.
The petitioner, represented through Gujarat’s Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta argued for the constitution of a panel similar to a judicial committee headed by Justice HS Bedi, a retired judge of the Supreme Court who has been tasked by the Court to probe into 21 encounter deaths in Gujarat, in other States witnessing several encounter deaths.
The Narendra Modi government cited: “Between 1998-2000 the special squads of Bombay Police cleaned up (the expression then used) about 300 strong Bombay underworld dons with an average of 100 encounters a year….Officers who undertook this operation ‘clean up’ were feted with as super heroes and even immortalised by films.”
Another example related to the anti-Maoist operations of the police: “In 1970s when the naxalite movement threatened the very social fabric of West Bengal, it is believed that the militant naxals were crushed by a police method which many term as counter-state terror.” Even in anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, the petition felt similar encounters took place since the men in uniform were battling odds in the most adverse circumstances.
Wondering what stopped the human rights activists not to raise these issues before Court, the petition said, “It is a matter to be considered by the Supreme Court that such serious incidents have never shaken conscience of the human rights activists either based in Mumbai or anywhere in the country.” It accused the activists of keeping a biased view against Gujarat.
Despite the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing being a blot on the state police, the Modi government, in its petition, stood by its police officers and felt the need of setting up an independent monitoring agency was essential to protect the morale of the police force.
Friday, 13 April 2012 23:59
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre, States and the NHRC after a NGO petitioned it seeking an independent probe into encounter deaths across the country.
Dishing out comparative statistics, it pointed out how Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had numerous such killings but never came under scrutiny even as human rights activists unnecessarily dragged Gujarat to the apex court.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai posted it along with a bunch of petitions already pending with regard to Gujarat before the same Bench.
The NGO Centre for Human Rights and Justice, backed by the Gujarat Government, blamed certain Mumbai-based human rights activists for pursuing encounter deaths in Gujarat and demanded the Court to set up an independent monitoring agency in every state on the lines of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the genuineness of each encounter over the past 10 years.
The petitioner, represented through Gujarat’s Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta argued for the constitution of a panel similar to a judicial committee headed by Justice HS Bedi, a retired judge of the Supreme Court who has been tasked by the Court to probe into 21 encounter deaths in Gujarat, in other States witnessing several encounter deaths.
The Narendra Modi government cited: “Between 1998-2000 the special squads of Bombay Police cleaned up (the expression then used) about 300 strong Bombay underworld dons with an average of 100 encounters a year….Officers who undertook this operation ‘clean up’ were feted with as super heroes and even immortalised by films.”
Another example related to the anti-Maoist operations of the police: “In 1970s when the naxalite movement threatened the very social fabric of West Bengal, it is believed that the militant naxals were crushed by a police method which many term as counter-state terror.” Even in anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, the petition felt similar encounters took place since the men in uniform were battling odds in the most adverse circumstances.
Wondering what stopped the human rights activists not to raise these issues before Court, the petition said, “It is a matter to be considered by the Supreme Court that such serious incidents have never shaken conscience of the human rights activists either based in Mumbai or anywhere in the country.” It accused the activists of keeping a biased view against Gujarat.
Despite the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing being a blot on the state police, the Modi government, in its petition, stood by its police officers and felt the need of setting up an independent monitoring agency was essential to protect the morale of the police force.
