Solicitor General for India Tushar Mehta today requested the Supreme Court of India to demarcate the role of Amicus Curiae who are appointed to assist the Court..The request was made before a Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose during the hearing of the Manipur encounter case, in which Armed Forces were alleged to have committed extra-judicial killings..Senior Advocate Dr Menaka Guruswamy is the Amicus Curiae in this case. .The Bench was due to hear application by an officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) who sought to be discharged from the case since he was promoted as the DIG, Police.Before today's hearing began, SG Mehta stated that Amicus Curiae should not have anything to say about which officer has to be discharged in a case. "This is happening in every matter. They can assist on question of law and nothing else. It's happening in other cases," Mehta said..However, Justice Ramana replied, "You are a senior officer and Solicitor General, we know what amicus does. Let us not get into that. Tell us who will you replace the officer with.".The SG persisted with his argument, stating,"Please demarcate the line by which your Lordships can be assisted by amicus. We are seeing this since decades. We can file an application. It's not for the Amicus Curiae...in general I am not imputing motives to any individual. They cannot be running the law.".He further submitted that the role of the Amicus also needed to be demarcated as they cannot "run the CBI.".The Court, however, refrained from passing any orders on the SG's request and stated that it would consider this submission at a later date. .As far as the case is concerned, the Court allowed the SIT officer to be discharged.The Centre has been directed to fill the post expeditiously.
Solicitor General for India Tushar Mehta today requested the Supreme Court of India to demarcate the role of Amicus Curiae who are appointed to assist the Court..The request was made before a Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose during the hearing of the Manipur encounter case, in which Armed Forces were alleged to have committed extra-judicial killings..Senior Advocate Dr Menaka Guruswamy is the Amicus Curiae in this case. .The Bench was due to hear application by an officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) who sought to be discharged from the case since he was promoted as the DIG, Police.Before today's hearing began, SG Mehta stated that Amicus Curiae should not have anything to say about which officer has to be discharged in a case. "This is happening in every matter. They can assist on question of law and nothing else. It's happening in other cases," Mehta said..However, Justice Ramana replied, "You are a senior officer and Solicitor General, we know what amicus does. Let us not get into that. Tell us who will you replace the officer with.".The SG persisted with his argument, stating,"Please demarcate the line by which your Lordships can be assisted by amicus. We are seeing this since decades. We can file an application. It's not for the Amicus Curiae...in general I am not imputing motives to any individual. They cannot be running the law.".He further submitted that the role of the Amicus also needed to be demarcated as they cannot "run the CBI.".The Court, however, refrained from passing any orders on the SG's request and stated that it would consider this submission at a later date. .As far as the case is concerned, the Court allowed the SIT officer to be discharged.The Centre has been directed to fill the post expeditiously.
