New Delhi: For over a year, the Supreme Court hasn’t had a hearing in the case involving the alleged fake encounter killings of as many as 1,526 civilians in trouble-torn Manipur.
This is because a new bench has not yet been constituted after the retirement of Justice Madan B. Lokur in December 2018.
According to the petitioners, the Extra-Judicial Execution Victim Families Association Manipur (EEVFAM) and Human Rights Alert (HRA), the apex court last heard the case based on its plea, in September 2018.
The writ petition was filed in 2012, seeking justice under Article 32 of the Constitution. The petitioners listed 1,526 cases of alleged staged encounters since 1979 in the northeastern state under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
In November 2018, the two-judge bench comprising Justice Lokur and Justice U.U. Lalit dismissed a petition jointly filed by at least 750 Army personnel seeking recusal of the two judges because they had remarked that the “murderers” were “roaming” free in Manipur while the survivors were living in fear.
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They felt that the allegations against the security personnel might be looked at with prejudice.
In July 2017, the bench, in a landmark order, had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to form a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations. So far, FIRs have been filed in 39 cases and chargesheets in 11 incidents of fake encounters.
“The observations are not intended to compromise the independence of the SIT probing the fake encounters in Manipur,” the bench had stated while setting aside the Army personnel’s’ petition.
On December 30, Justice Lokur retired from service and since then the case has awaited the creation of a new bench.
On July 18, the petitioners formally mentioned the need for the constitution of the bench before Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
“He assured in the open court that a bench will be constituted and the matter will be heard soon. But even after the lapse of more than three months, there is no progress in the matter. We simply can’t understand why it is taking so long,” said Babloo Loitongbam, well-known Imphal-based activist and director of HRA.
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He said, “The glimmer of hope that the families had seems to be slowly dying as the initial push for justice by the Supreme Court has been waning away.”
On being asked about the delay, Colin Gonsalves, senior Supreme Court advocate and founder of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) which is representing the petitioners at the court, told The Wire, “Some three weeks ago, we enquired about the matter at the Supreme Court Registry. We were told that it couldn’t be done because of the presence of two constitutional benches. One is to look into the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid matter and the other is the Justice Arun Misra-led bench to interpret certain clauses in the land acquisition law.”
“Now that the hearing in the Ayodhya matter is over, we are hoping that a new bench will be constituted soon to hear this important case.”
CJI Gogoi retires this November 17 and he will be succeeded by Justice S.A. Bobde.