Fast track to justice
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 05 2013 -

Extrajudicial killings: SC gives green signal to probe panel :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

In a significant development that speaks volume about the collective spirit and sustained movement of the people, the Supreme Court of India has finally agreed to appoint a commission to probe into cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

The decision of the apex court to appoint the commission for probing into five cases of extra-judicial killings has come after a series of hearing on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families, Manipur (EEVFAM) pleading for an independent probe into extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

Even if the three-member commission comprising former apex court judge Santosh Hedge, former CEC JM Lyngoh and a police officer has been given the green signal for probe into only five cases of extra-judicial killings out of more than 2,000 cases cited, we feel that it is, nonetheless, no mean achievement but a significant victory for the suffering people who have been crying hoarse for justice for the last so many years.

Considering the fact that no one has been ever held guilty in such cases of extra-judicial executions till date, we just hope that probe into the five cases as ordered by the Supreme Court would set a precedent for the families of other remaining victims not only in Manipur but also in other parts of the country to raise their voice and seek justice and the security forces would be made to think over before stamping out the life of an innocent person.

However, the road to the justice has not at all been a smooth one with the Centre and the State Government buying time for their responses to the Supreme Court ruling on the numerous cases of extra-judicial killings taking place in Manipur.

In fact, on November 5 last, the apex court had to rap the Government of Manipur for the repeated requests of giving more time for filing its response, saying "Do it quickly. People are dying out there".

The failure of the government to submit its response in time only indicates that the issue of extra-judicial executions is not as rosy as it tries to project.

Nor could it remain in a denial mode any longer to the killing of innocent people by security personnel with immunity granted under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 for more than half a century now.

The truth is that prolonged imposition of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives sweeping power to armed security personnel to even shoot a person on mere suspicion, all in the name of counter insurgency, is at the root cause of the present problem.

So, the Act which deprives the basic fundamental right to life and live for certain sections of the people in a democratic country should go.

Side by side, there is also the urgent need(as we have proposed earlier through this column) to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 under which sanction of either the Central or the State Government is required to arrest or institute criminal prosecutions against public servants including police officers and members of armed forces.

Only then, there can be the true meaning of democracy.