Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Sept 21: The State High Court today rejected ban on the use of pellet gun for crowd control in Kashmir and said that no findings of use of excessive force and violation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been recorded by any fact finding authority.
Division Bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey while passing a detailed judgment declined to grant the relief seeking ban on use of pellet in the State. “In such circumstances, we are not inclined to grant the relief sought for in the writ petition with regard to prayers (a) and the said prayer is rejected”, DB said.
The bench under scored judgment of Supreme Court in which court has held that “in Kashmir while curbing such violence or dispersing unlawful assemblies, police has to accomplish its task with utmost care, deftness and precision’.
With the reference of Supreme Court Judgment, the High Court said that use of force is inevitable against unruly mobs and what kind of force has to be used at the relevant point of time or in a given situation has to be decided by the person incharge of the place where violence is taking place.
“This Court in the writ jurisdiction without any finding rendered by the competent forum or authority cannot decide as to whether the use of force in particular incident in excessive or not” , court said.
“Having regard to the ground situation prevailing as of now and the fact that Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs has already constituted a Committee of Experts through its Memorandum for exploring the alternate to pellet guns”, court said adding: “We are not inclined to prohibit the pellet guns in rare and extreme situation” before filing report by expert committee and a decision taken at Government level.
J&K Bar Association in its PIL had sought relief from the court to ban the use of pellet guns by the State as well as Central forces while dealing with crowds or protests in the Valley. “The use of pellet gun be totally banned as a means of crowd control”, reads one of the reliefs of PIL.
Court with regard to relief sought for punishing all those officers who took the decision of using the pellet guns at the protestors and non-protestors from the beginning of present unrest said the relief cannot be considered in this petition and in this regard court advised to move the appropriate forum.
“…..no findings of use of excessive force, violating the guidelines issued in the SOP, have been recorded by any fact finding authority” court said. “…alleging use of excessive force, due to which death or injury has occurred, can very well approach the appropriate forum to establish the same and seek redressal”, reads the court judgment.
Court, however, made it clear with regard to other reliefs such as compensation to the victims, medical treatment to the injured in and outside the State, that the pendency of the writ petition will not come in the way of State Government to pay compensation to those who deserve for it.
“…other prayers will not be bar for the Government for paying compensation to the deserving family members of the deceased persons or to tinjured persons as it may deem fit and proper”, the DB directed State Government.
It also directed the concerned authorities to ensure that all injured persons are extended adequate medical treatment for whatever injury they sustain and provide all possible required medical treatment to the injured by specialists.
“If specialists are not available in the State, appropriate arrangements have to be made to treat the patients by inviting specialists in the state or to shift the patients to hospitals outside the State wherever the specialists are available”, the court order read.
In so far other reliefs sought in the petition, the court admitted the petition for hearing and directed Director General of Police and Senior Superintendents of all the districts of Valley to file their counter affidavit by the end of November and posted the matter for further consideration in next year.
The Court also held that the contention raised by the petitioner Association that Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) has not been followed while handling the dispersal of mob and maintenance of law and order cannot be decided in the writ petition as the DGP in his reply has specifically stated that the SOP is being strictly followed.
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