The Supreme Court on Friday set out to examine the policy of the Centre to rescue Indian sailors held captive by pirates on high seas.
The occasion for the Court to consider the issue came on two PIls, one filed by a lawyer in public interest and another by the wife of an officer held hostage by Somalian pirates.
The bench of Justices TS Thakur and C Nagappan asked the Centre to inform in six weeks as to what protocol or procedure was followed once information is received about any Indian gone missing on high seas.
“Where an Indian national is lost on high seas, how does the Government of India react to the situation,” the bench asked, adding, “Do you (Centre) have a protocol or a procedure by which you take up the matter with the Embassy concerned, the various channels of communication, and bilateral arrangements.”
The remarks came on a petition by one Rajni Singh, whose husband was on the ship MV Asphalt Venture when it was hijacked by Somalian pirates on September 28, 2010 and another by lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who sought guidelines in this regard.
The bench said, “In this country when somebody goes missing there is a procedure to be followed. But in this case, if an Indian national is taken away, there may be a
procedure by which we may judge your actions.”
Ministry of External Affairs informed the Court that the Centre had indicated steps taken by it in an affidavit. But the bench said, “It may not be sufficient. Any time such thing happens any action taken must be predictable for people of this country and not a knee-jerk reaction.” The Court even added that “If the procedure is not sufficient, we may even add to that.”