New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday held that the Army or the Manipur police cannot use excessive force under the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) or the Unlawful Activities Prev-ention Act to deal with militants or insurgency.
A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Lalit gave this ruling on a PIL filed by Extra Judicial Execution Vic-tim Families Association alleging 1,528 fake encounter deaths in Manipur in the last decade and demanding a probe by a special investigation team.
The Bench said if members of our armed forces are deployed and employed to kill citizens of our country on the mere allegation or suspicion that they are ‘enemy’ not only the rule of law but our democracy would be in grave danger. It said use of excessive force or retaliatory force by the Manipur Police or the armed forces of the Union is not permissible.
It said therefore, even while dealing with the ‘enemy’ the rule of law would apply and if there have been excesses beyond the call of duty, those members of the Manipur Police or the armed forces who have committed the excesses which do not have a reasonable connection with the performance of their official duty would be liable to be proceeded against AFSPA in a court of law and not necessarily by the Army in court martial proceedings.
The Bench said as is evident from the dos and don’ts and the Ten Commandments of the Chief of Army Staff, the Army believes in this ethos and accepts that this principle would apply even in an area declared as a disturbed area under AFSPA and against militants, insurgents and terrorists. There is no reason why this principle should not apply to the other armed forces of the Union and the Manipur Police.
The Bench rejected the Centre’s submission that a person carrying weapons in violation of prohibitory orders in the disturbed area of Manipur is ipso facto an enemy or that the security forces in Manipur in such a case are dealing with an ‘enemy’ as defined in Section 3(x) of the Army Act.
