JUDGMENT :

(Suman Shyam, J.)

1. Heard Mr. Arif Md. Yeasin Jwadder, the petitioner-in-person, who has addressed this Court from New Delhi through remote video conferencing (RVC) facility. We have also heard Mr. D. Saikia, learned Advocate General, Assam, assisted by Ms. P. Baruah, learned counsel for the respondent nos. 1 to 3 and Mr. B. Chakravarty, learned counsel representing the respondent nos. 4 and 5.

2. The petitioner claims to be a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the State of Assam. Espousing the cause of the victims who had been allegedly killed and/or grievously injured by the Police in ‘fake encounters’, the instant PIL has been filed with the following prayers :

“1. Issue an appropriate writ or order or direction calling for records of 1st & 2nd respondents pertaining to all fake encounters killing by police personnel and order for registration of FIR, an independent investigation against the concerned police personnel who are involved in the above said fake encounters killing of the alleged accused shall be conducted by CBI, SIT or any other police teams from other states under the supervision of this Hon’ble Court, get the concerned police officials who are involved in fake encounters be brought before the law and bring out the truth in each case; and

2. Issue an appropriate writ or order directing the independent agency to strictly comply with the 16 guidelines issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of PUCL & Anr. Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors. (2014) 10 SCC 635 in regard to the investigation over fake encounter killing’ and or

3. Institute judicial inquiry by a sitting Judge of this Hon’ble High Court, and

4. Direct the Assam government to specify a Human Rights Court in every district as envisaged in terms of section 30 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993; and

5. Direct monetary compensation to the victims family after due verification, and

6. Pass such other and further order as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

3. A perusal of the averments made in the writ petition goes to show that the statements made therein are primarily based on newspaper reports down-loaded by the petitioner from different websites, which are annexed as Annexure-P/1 (colly). According to the petitioner, there were more than 80 fake encounters conducted by the Assam Police during the period from May, 2021 till the date of filing of the writ petition, resulting in the death of as many as 28 accused persons and injury being caused to more than 48. The petitioner has stated that the persons who have been killed and/or injured are not dreaded criminals but the Police department has adopted the modus operandi of carrying out fake encounters so as to eliminate the accused persons in police custody by making a false allegation that they were trying to snatch away service revolvers of the Police personnel on duty and, therefore, Police had to retaliate in exercise of Right of Self Defense. According to the petitioner, there is no proper inquiry being conducted into any of these incidents of ‘fake encounters’ and the FIRs that have been lodged in these cases are all against the victims and not the guilty Police officials. The petitioner has also alleged that even in the Magisterial Inquiry conducted in some places into the cases of police encounters are in utter violation of the guidelines laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and another Vs. State of Maharashtra and others reported in (2014) 10 SCC 635.

4. The petitioner has also filed a separate application, numbered and registered as IA (Crl) 78/2022 arising out of PIL No.86/2021, with a prayer to direct the authorities to furnish him with the copies of all the relevant FIRs and documents connected with the Police encounter cases during the period from May, 2021 to January, 2022.

5. In support of the prayers made in the petition the writ petitione