Supreme Court asks, "Is AFSPA in Manipur eternal?"
Source: The Sangai Express / Courtesy - Dhananjay Mahapatra / TNN

New Delhi, January 15 2016 : The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Manipur government how long the Army should be deployed in the state and enjoy unaccountable power under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and whether 35 years of the Army's presence had improved the law and order situation.

The Court had appointed a high-level inquiry committee headed by an ex-Judge of the SC to inquire into allegations that the armed forces had carried out over 1,500 extra-judicial killings in the last 30 years and police were refusing to file FIRs because of AFSPA AFSPA was imposed in Manipur on September 8, 1980 to tackle the lawlessness created by four main insurgent groups through dacoity, ransom and killings.

Supreme Court asks, "Is AFSPA in Manipur eternal?

Petitions by an NGO 'Extra- judicial Execution Victims Families Association of Ma- nipur' and former Director of Manipur Health Services Th Suresh Singh had sought withdrawal of AFSPA After getting the report and hearing the petitions, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit told the state government, "AFSPA was supposed to be a temporary measure.

But it has been there for the last 35 years.

Two generations have grown up under the presence of Army.

It was supposed to only aid the democratic government in tackling law and order situa- tion created by insurgent groups." Appearing for the Con- gress-led Ibobi Singh Government in Manipur, sen- ior advocate V Giri told the Court that AFSPA was still needed to maintain law and order as insurgency contin- ued to thrive in the state given its porous international bor- der.

When AFSPA was impo- sed, there were four promi- nent insurgent groups, after 35 years, there were more than a dozen prominent insurgent groups in Manipur, he added.

The bench said, "AFSPA was imposed after declaring the State a disturbed area.

You mean to say that in 35 years of Army presence in the state, the situation has not im- proved to remove the distur- bed area tag from the state? Has nothing changed on the law and order front for the last three decades?" Giri attempted to convince the Court that democracy had deep roots in the state, which saw very high percentage of voting in the last several as- sembly elections.

"The test is whether the general public is fed up with AFSPA? The an- swer is, it is not so.

Demo- cracy is alive and kicking in the state.

Should the elected representatives not take a de- cision whether AFSPA should be withdrawn or not? People are not disgusted with "AFSPA was sup- posed to be a temporary measure.

But it has been there for the last 35 years.

Two generations have grown up under the presence of Army" Army presence in the state.

The Army is not in conflict with the people," Giri said.

However, he admitted be- fore the Court that not many FIRs were registered on com- plaints accusing Army per- sonnel of extra-judicial kill- ings.

The bench said, "One can discount one or two aberra- tions in the operations carried out in insurgency affected areas, but not in 70-odd cases.

In all these cases, the complaint of the commoners or victims' families had not been converted into FIRs."It reminded Giri that Tripura has decided to do away with AFSPA.

Petitioner Suresh Singh had said, "People of Manipur are not against the armed forces and, in fact, majority desires the Army to protect them against external aggres- sion but everyone is against AFSPA which has been of- ten misused" .