Supreme Court constitutes 3-member Commission to enquire into extra-judicial executions in Manipur

On January 4, 2013 a Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai constituted a 3-member High Powered Commission to enquire into alleged “extra-judicial executions” committed by the Manipur State Police and other security forces. The three members are former Supreme Court Judge, Sanotsh Hegde, Former Chief Election Commissioner, JM Lyngdoh, and former DGP of Karnataka, AK Singh..The Bench was hearing a criminal writ petition filed in connection with the alleged murder of 1,528 people who were killed through “extra-judicial executions” from the year 1979 to 2012..Criticising the Manipur government for its “attempt to forestall any examination of the matter by this Court”, the Bench held that the State of Manipur could not cite the deaths of security forces to justify what the Apex Court has referred to as “Administrative liquidation”. The Court also relied on the submissions made by Menaka Guruswamy, the amicus in this matter, which showed that the enquiries conducted into these killings by these extra-judicial executions were “wholly unsatisfactory”. The Court further took cognisance of the fact that the Gauhati High Court had directed judicial enquiries into several deaths and that the said enquiries had revealed that the victims were killed by the police or security forces in “cold blood and stage managed encounters”..Although the relief sought by the Petitioners was the constitution of a Special Investigation Team, the Court declared that it would first like to examine the veracity of the allegations “concerning the cases [of extra-judicial executions] cited by the writ petitioners”. Hence, the constitution of the Commission. The Commission will not only enquire into six cases of extra-judicial killings but will also prepare a report regarding the “functioning of the State Police and security forces” within the State of Manipur. The Court has granted the Commission a period of three months to submit its findings..The connected writ petition, filed by Suresh Singh [WP (C) No. 445 of 2012] contended that the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in the State of Manipur had led to the “subverting of civil rights” and had made it possible for the security forces to “kill innocent persons with impunity”. However, the order of January 4, 2013 does not examine specifically deal with these contentions, preferring to focus its attention on the establishment of the Commission..Senior Counsel Colin Gonsalves appeared for the Petitioners. Additional Solicitor General, Paras Kuhad appeared for the Union of India, Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar appeared for the State of Manipur and the National Human Rights Commission was represented by Advocate Sobha..The entire text of the order can be found here.