SC declines PIL on police encounters
The Supreme Court refused to go into the allegation that NHRC guidelines dealing with encounters have not been implemented by various police forces.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to go into the allegation that NHRC guidelines dealing with encounters have not been implemented by various police forces.
"Killing in fake encounter as such is illegal and you are seeking laying down of guidelines," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said during the hearing of the PIL alleging that due to non-implementation of the NHRC and apex court guidelines, the cases of fake encounter have risen.
The PIL-filed by a Hyderabad-based advocate Ramesh Reddy had submitted that the non-implementation of guidelines was because of the inadequate infrastructure available with the State Human Rights Commissions.
The Bench, also comprising Justice P Sathasivam, said such issues cannot be looked into by the apex court and the advocate can knock the doors of High Courts.
The PIL had also sought a response about the steps taken by the Centre, state governments and Union Territories to check killings of innocent people in police encounters.
The PIL pointed out that of the 35 states and UTs, only 16 have their human rights commissions and only 11 of them were functioning with a chairperson.
It was submitted that Bihar and Jharkhand did not have a State Human Rights Commission.
The petitioner submitted that since the state commissions were not functioning properly, the pendency of the cases at NHRC was rising as the affected people have been directly approaching it.
The counsel said the critical state of affairs of state human rights commissions was reflected in the NHRC's annual report for 2004-05 which had said casual approach by the state machineries have resulted in rise of fake encounter killings. The petitioner later withdrew the petition.