The Assam government on Tuesday (February 25, 2025) strongly objected to a public interest petition accusing it of violating a 2014 Supreme Court judgment for a scientific, well-documented and decisive investigation by an independent agency into 171 police encounters that allegedly took place in the State between May 2021 and August 2022.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the judgment in the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) versus State of Maharashtra on police encounter deaths was binding on the State and was followed “to the hilt”.
The judgment had held that “killings in police encounters require independent investigation” to restore the public’s faith in the police force.
“It does not matter whether the victim was a common person or a militant or a terrorist, nor does it matter whether the aggressor was a common person or the State. The law is the same for both and is equally applicable to both… This is the requirement of a democracy,” the Supreme Court had observed over two decades ago in the verdict.
On Tuesday (February 25, 2025), advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Arif Md. Yeasin Jwaedder, said the 16 guidelines of the PUCL judgment, which were to be mandatorily followed by the State administration were “rampantly violated” by the Assam establishment. Mr. Bhushan sought an independent investigation by a retired Supreme Court Court or High Court judge.
He said First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered against the victims and not the police officers involved. He referred to the statements given by victims who were shot in their legs by an “encounter specialist”.
“The incidents were not random. They showed a general pattern,” Mr. Bhushan submitted.
Justice Kant said the mechanism evolved in the PUCL judgment was intended to have an “impartial arbiter” look into the facts of each case. The judge explained that in case the allegations of the victims were genuine, the police officers would be in the dock. On the other hand, if the allegations were cooked up and the persons involved were actually terrorists, the police would be in the clear.
Mr. Mehta said the guidelines had specifically said any complaints of “fake” encounters or police abuse would have to be given by the families of the victims and not third parties such as the petitioner here.
Mr. Bhushan said the families were fear-struck. It took a lot of cajoling even to get statements about being shot in the legs.
The Solicitor General said such baseless claims demoralised the police forces. The Assam Police had lost 412 personnel between 1991 and 2024, and the Central forces another 449. There was a lot of pressure on the security forces. However, considerable work had been done to bring security back, he said. Over 11,200 terrorists had surrendered in Assam. In 2024, security forces made 167 recoveries of arms. These included high-caliber weapons, such as 281 AK-56 automatic rifles, 15 HK G3 rifles and 162 pistols. The forces were fighting heavily-armed narcotic smugglers from neighbouring Myanmar, Cambodia, etc., Mr. Mehta said.
“But why would an independent investigation demoralise honest police officers?” Mr. Bhushan asked in his rejoinder.
The court reserved the case for judgment.
On February 4, the top had court said it couldn’t get into the merit of the alleged 171 police encounters but would only see whether its guidelines on such extra-judicial killings had been duly followed.
