Supreme Court to revisit verdict on Army powers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the Centre’s curative petition seeking to recall the July 2016 order holding 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 Prevention Act to deal with militants or insurgency.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul without giving any specific date told counsel R. Balasubramanian, who made a mention’for listing of the curative petition that the matter will be heard.

On July 8, 2016 the top court had given this ruling on a PIL filed by Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) alleging 1,528 fake encounter deaths in Manipur in the last decade and demanding a probe by a special investigation team.

The court had 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 had directed that the Indian Army and other paramilitary forces cannot use “excessive and retaliatory force” in Manipur and all such allegations of excessive force must be probed.