Gujarat Government cut a sorry figure in Supreme Court on Thursday as no State, not even BJP-ruled ones, supported its petition seeking uniform policy to enquire into all encounter deaths across the country.
The Bench of Chief Justice RM lodha, Justices Madan B lokur and Kurian Joseph dismissed the petition after it found the State to be in “tremendous minority” on the issue in question. Moreover, the court was of the view that it was improper for the court to issue any directions on a matter where consensus among States was lacking, particularly since “law and order” is a State subject and each State had its own peculiar law and order problems.
Strangely, no senior counsel appeared for Gujarat as is the norm, considering the fact that Gujarat had faced the ignominy of promoting fake encounters following the Sohrabuddin fake encounter, Tulsiram Prajapati case, and Ishrat Jehan encounter which got highlighted in SC. Besides, the State had approached court with a petition as a judicial commission headed by a former SC judge HS Bedi was looking into all encounter killings in Gujarat in the recent past.
For the State, advocate Hemantika Wahi argued that a uniform policy must be adopted to enquire into all encounter deaths and not just of Gujarat. The Bench said, “It disturbs federal structure. How can there be a uniform policy. law and order is a State subject. You tell us are all States on board with you.”
First was the turn of Chhattisgarh which curtly said no. Next to follow was Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, which uniformly disagreed. The Bench remarked, “You are in tremendous minority. You should have taken at least two States into confidence.”
The NHRC informed court that it had framed Guidelines on Encounter Deaths but the same was advisory and not enforceable.