SC to hear plea of Army personnel challenging prosecution in AFSPA areas

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on August 20 a plea filed by over 300 Army personnel challenging registration of FIRs against them for operations in disturbed areas such as Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) is in force.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar considered the submissions of lawyer Aishwarya Bhati that the Army personnel are being "persecuted" and proceeded against for performing duties in such disturbed areas.

The petition was filed by the army officers, including Col Amit Kumar. They range from the level of Section Commanders to Commanding Officers of the Section, Platoon, Company and Battalion, leading 10 to 1000 men each.

The filing of the plea by serving Army officers assumed significance as the CBI's SIT has recently filed charge sheets in two separate encounter cases in Manipur against armed forces in which murder charges have been slapped.

The SIT was constituted by the apex court while hearing a matter related to alleged fake encounters by the Army, Assam Rifles and the state police in Manipur.

The Army personnel, in their petition, claimed that they "are now facing confusion and countering questions from the soldiers under their command, as to whether they are supposed to continue to engage the proxy war and insurgency with their military training, principals, standard operating procedures, operational realities, valour and courage or act and operate as per the yardsticks of peace time operations, law and order issues and CrPC."
It said "any criminality, misuse, abuse, negligence, excessive power, judgment error, mistake, bona fide, mala fide, good faith or mens rea have to be questioned, considered, assessed, investigated or adjudged only with respect to the peculiar facts and circumstances of insurgency and proxy war, taking into regard the Standard Operating Procedures of Indian Army and operational realities."
It sought specific guidelines to protect the bona fide action of soldiers under the AFSPA, "so that no soldier is harassed by initiation of criminal proceedings for actions done in good faith in exercise of their duties, as mandated by the Union of India, in protection of sovereignty, integrity and dignity of the country."