GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, February 4, stated that its primary concern in a case related to alleged ‘fake’ police encounters in Assam is whether the guidelines set in the PUCL v. State of Maharashtra judgment were followed.
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In its ruling, the court made it clear that it will not comment on the merits of the encounters themselves.
“We are not going to form any opinion on merits. We can't… The only issue is compliance with PUCL guidelines,” said Justice Surya Kant, who was part of the bench along with Justice N Kotiswar Singh.
The case involves a petition challenging a Gauhati High Court decision that dismissed a PIL seeking an independent probe into alleged fake encounters. The High Court had previously ruled that separate investigations were unnecessary as the state authorities were already looking into each case.
During the hearing, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner Arif Md Yeasin Jwadder, claimed that around 171 fake encounter cases had been reported in Assam in recent years. He argued that the PUCL guidelines, which require independent investigations and magisterial inquiries into police encounters, were not being followed.
Bhushan also alleged that FIRs were often filed against the victims of these encounters, and in some cases, police officers involved in the encounters were also leading the investigations, raising concerns about bias. He suggested forming a committee led by a retired judge to investigate the matter.
On the other hand, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta defended the Assam government, claiming that the PUCL guidelines were fully followed. He questioned the credibility of the petitioner and sought time to present more details to the court.
The court had earlier asked the Assam government to submit an affidavit detailing the status of the alleged encounters, but this had not been done.