Continued AFSPA,CrPC section 144 make a mockery of the law

In a case filed by the Naga Peoples Movement For Human Rights,the Supreme Court in 1995 upheld the validity of AFSPA with caveats that included a periodic review of the situation,use of minimal force and strict adherence to the Criminal Procedure Code and the dos and donts issued by Army headquarters. The judicial panel,headed by former judge Santosh Hegde,notes cases where one or two suspects were fired at by more than 30 personnel,most of them unaware of these guidelines.

The commission noted that periodic reviews to justify the continuance of AFSPA have been given a go-by.

The continuous imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC,throughout the state,for decades makes a mockery of the law. The same is true for the continuance of AFSPA, states the report of the panel,also comprising former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh and former Karnataka DGP Ajai Kumar Singh.

It disputes the Centres assurance to the Supreme Court about having in place a monitoring system to check the misuse of AFSPA; no document or statement was ever placed before the commission to corroborate this.

It found that neither the Centre nor the Manipur government had any record of the number of civilians killed in counter-insurgency operations.

Normally,the greater the power,the greater has to be the restraint and the stricter the mechanism to prevent its misuse… But in case of AFSPA in Manipur,this principle appears to have been reversed. We should not forget that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the panel said.

The commission apprehended that gross misuse of unbridled power with the armed forces might result in more perosns being implicated in the future. It accepted the problem of insurgency in Manipur but said continuing AFSPA had little or no effect on the situation and that the six cases of fake encounters were egregious examples of the AFSPAs gross abuse.

Denotify gradually

The panel recommended gradual denotification of areas under AFSPA and withdrawal of section 144 orders. The report said the Manipur administration should be more sensitive and have people-friendly policies as well as policing.

It suggested the Armys dos and donts be made a law,with violation punishable. It advocated clearly defining the role and duties of commandos so that they could not go on terrorising people by virtue of their unwritten codes. Citing indiscriminate registration of FIRs,including charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,it sought monitoring of such cases.

It recommended a police complaint authority in each district and that all encounter death cases be investigated by officers not below the rank of a DySP or an assistant SP,with a provision for periodic review of investigations and special courts to handle them.

Lack of faith

Writing a separate note in the report,IPS officer Singh said there was an overwhelming sense of discrimination in the mind of people and lack of faith in the honesty and intentions of central and state governments with the continuance of AFSPA and section 144.

Singh questioned the justification of Assam Rifles having a permanent establishment on the university campus in Imphal from where no violence had been reported for decades. If permanent deployment of AR in the Imphal University is justified,then why no deployment of armed forces of the Union in Osmania University,the hotbed of violence for years in the Telangana movement? he said. The question is also asked that if permanent enforcement of AFSPA in Manipur is justified,why the same law has not been used in other parts of the country which have been reeling under Naxal violence…