In view of observations and recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which was asked to probe alleged human rights violations in the name of Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh, the SC on Tuesday sought to know how far the state administration and authorities had acted upon them and what steps had been taken so far. Seeking a detailed action taken report (ATR), a Bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam gave time to the state till January 2009 and agreed to examine the matter for further directions in February.Referring to the NHRC findings and recommendations, which had pointed to incidents of burning and killing on which FIRs were not registered and cases of high-handedness of Special Police Officers and civilians armed with weapons to fight Naxal menace, the state Government's counsel submitted that some of these had already been acted upon. Senior advocate K K Venugopal, who appeared for the Chhattisgarh Government said that the state had already acted on reports and recommendations of the NHRC. “FIRs have been lodged in the cases which were pointed out,” he said. The state's counsel submitted that in some cases the probe had been initiated before registering the FIR and further action would be taken on the recommendation of the NHRC. The NHRC's report stated that villagers had become victims of the fight between Naxalites and Salwa Judum. Senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for petitioners including sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramchandra Guha and others, stressed the need for taking steps against the SPOs, accused by the report of indulging in extra-judicial killings.
