IMPORTANT POINT
Killing of members of security forces cannot be a ground to justify custodial deaths and fake encounters.

Judgment :-

These two writ petitions, each filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, raise some disquieting issues pertaining to the State of Manipur. In writ petition (criminal) No.129 of 2012, it is stated that, over the years, a large number of people, Indian citizens, have been killed by the Manipur Police and other security forces while they were in custody or in stage-managed encounters or in ways broadly termed as ‘extra-judicial executions’. In writ petition (civil) No.445 of 2012, it is stated that for a very long time, the State of Manipur is declared as “disturbed area” and is put under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, subverting the civil rights of the citizens of the State and making it possible for the security forces to kill innocent persons with impunity.

In this order, we deal with the first writ petition, i.e., writ petition (criminal) No.129/2012.

In this writ petition it is stated that during the period May, 1979 to May, 2012, 1528 people were killed in Manipur in extra-judicial execution. The statement is mainly based on a memorandum prepared by ‘Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN’ and submitted to one Christof Heyns, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mission to India, 19-30 March, 2012. The Memorandum compiles the list of 1528 people allegedly killed unlawfully by the State Police or the security forces. The writ petitioners later on filed “Compilation 1” and “Compilation 2”. In “Compilation 1” details are given of ten (10) cases relating to the killings of eleven (11) persons (out of the list of 1528); in “Compilation 2”, similarly details are given of thirteen (13) cases in which altogether seventeen (17) persons (out of the list of 1528) are alleged to have been killed in extra judicial executions.

A counter affidavit is filed on behalf of the State of Manipur. In the counter affidavit there is not only a complete denial of the allegations made in the writ petition but there also seems to be an attempt to forestall any examination of the matter by this Court. The plea is taken that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is the proper authority to monitor the cases referred to in the writ petition. It is stated that in regard to all the ten (10) cases highlighted in “Compilation 1” filed by the petitioners, reports have been submitted to it and in none of those cases the NHRC has recorded any finding of violation of human rights. It is stated that the occasion for this Court to examine those cases would arise only if it holds that the NHRC had failed to perform its statutory functions in safeguarding the human rights of the people in the State. This Court should not examine this matter directly but should only ask the NHRC to indicate the status of the cases listed and highlighted in the writ petition. We are unable even to follow such a plea. The course suggested by the State will completely dissipate the vigour and vitality of Article 32 of the Constitution. Article 21 coupled with Article 32 of the Constitution provides the finest guarantee and the most effective protection for the most precious of all rights, namely, the right to life and personal liberty of every person. Any indication of the violation of the right to life or personal liberty would put all the faculties of this Court at high alert to find out the truth and in case the Court finds that there has, in fact, been violation of the right to life and personal liberty of any person, it would be the Court’s bounden duty to step-in to protect those rights against the unlawful onslaught by the State. We, therefore, see no reason not to examine the matter directly but only vicariously and second-hand, through the agency of the NHRC.

A reference is next made in the counter affidavit to an appeal pending before this Court against the judgment of the Bombay High Court and a writ petition, also pending before this Court, filed by the State of Gujarat on the subje