MHA issues order in consultations with Law Ministry
UTs empowered to issue such orders for police
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 2: In a major decision, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has provided protection from arrest to the personnel of the ‘Armed Forces of the Union of India’ and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
“The provision of this protection has been made after the abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir which was done away with by the Central Government on August 5, 2019 as it provided special status to erstwhile State. Now no jawan can be arrested without the consent of the Central Government in both the Union Territories,” official sources told the Excelsior.
Asserting that till three years back, the ‘Ranbir Penal Code 1989’ was in force in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said because of this, under Section 45 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, ‘CrPC’, 1973, ‘members of the Armed Forces were not protected from arrest’.
Now, the Union Home Ministry headed by Amit Shah has approved the proposal after discussing it with the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department of Jammu and Kashmir.
The decision, as per the sources, has been taken in consultations with the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
Following approval by the Union Home Ministry, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Headquarters have also issued the same order.
Sources pointed out that before the abolition of Article-370 in Jammu and Kashmir, ‘Ranbir Penal Code 1989’ was applicable here. Because of this, many laws of the Central Government could not be implemented. However, in 2019, when Article-370 was abolished from Jammu and Kashmir, the way was paved for granting exemption from arrest to the personnel of the Armed Forces in any incident that happened in the line of duty.
“There has been a lot of discussion on this subject in the Union Home Ministry. There have been several instances in Jammu and Kashmir in which Armed Forces personnel have faced uncomfortable situations,” sources pointed out.
There have been incidents like detention of jawans. In such serious cases, the Army has taken up the issue with the local administration and police to protect its jawans. The issues are also taken up in Civil-Military Liaison conferences but, as per the sources, number of such incidents is bare minimum.
Till a few years ago, incidents of stone pelting were common in Kashmir and Armed Forces and CAPFs had to face awkward situation. However, now stone pelting has ended in the Kashmir valley.
“Even when the armed forces personnel engaged in an operation with the terrorists, the security forces were suddenly attacked by the mob. Such incidents have been happening with the jawans during the search operation. At that time, when force was used by the jawans to handle the situation, efforts were made to bring them under the ambit of legal action by making them accused. Now jawans have been given protection from arrest in both Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,” sources said.
It has been said in the orders that the UT Governments can also provide protection to their police forces/forces under sub-section (1) of the said Section. Apart from the Army in Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh, the soldiers of all the Central forces will get protection from arrest. It has been written in the CRPF order that if a jawan of the armed forces is travelling on duty, then there will also be a provision of protection, sources added.
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