IMPHAL, November 26: The hearing of the EEVFAM case was held at Court Number 9 of the Supreme Court of India with Justice Lokur and Justice U Lalit, constituting the Social Justice bench of the apex court.
According to sources, the Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi addressed the court on behalf of the Union of India and presented a convincing argument addressing the alleged extra-judicial executions by the armed forces of the Union under the Court of Inquiry under the Army Act.
However the amicus curie and senior advocate of the petitioners, Colin Gonsalves, vehemently contested this, informed the source.
It is leanrt that the Bench asked the Union of India what progress had been made on the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, on his visit in 2012, the report he submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in 2013, and the subsequent follow up report in 2015.
Later the court grilled the counsel of Manipur, senior advocate Giri on why no FIRs had been filed against the State in any of the listed cases, it said.
They also asked for explanations as to why the NHRC guidelines and provisions of the CrPC were not being followed, the sources said.
The Court also highlighted that the inquiries conducted by the Executive Magistrate were not sufficient, as the FIRs in question had been filed against the victims not against the security forces and police commanders, and because no one from both sides had attended many of these inquiries, sources said.
In any case, the executive magistrate would not have been competent to declare whether an offence had taken place or not, it said.
The court expressed concern about how an institution that had not even followed the above guidelines could possibly conduct an independent and effective investigation into the cases in the petition, it said.
The court will continue to hear arguments on December 3. They Court has also asked the amicus curae to make a submission on technically issues regarding jurisdiction under the Army Act, added the sources.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/11/sc-asks-union-of-india-to-respond-to-special-rapporteur-recommendations-on-extrajudicial-executions/