In January next year, the Supreme Court will hear and decide a petition challenging the use of pellet guns as a crowd-control measure in Jammu & Kashmir filed by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association.
While posting the petition of the lawyer body to January 18, the apex court examined the additional affidavit filed by the association in SC where it questioned the accession of J&K to India and claimed that elections held in the state over the past decades was "rigged". Taking exception to such remarks made in the affidavit, the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, "How is your additional affidavit relevant to the issue in question (about pellet guns)."
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar drew the attention of the Court to these contentious portions of the Bar Association's affidavit and wondered whose cause they espoused. Kumar further claimed that the HC ought not to have dealt with the question of desirability of using pellet guns when the issue at hand was of excessiveness. Aggrieved citizens who bore pellet injuries had recourse of compensation by approaching the appropriate authority under the Criminal Manual.
The Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud remarked, "If court has really wanted to know the reason for using pellet guns, then we feel it was a mistake." The Bench added that since the Bar Association wants the issue of pellet guns to be settled once and for all, it will hear the appeal limited to the question of using pellet guns. However, on the other issues of compensation and other reliefs, the HC was free to proceed with the PIl pending before it filed by the lawyer body. The Bar Association even demanded the Court to examine a report by an Expert panel formed by the Centre to study alternatives to pellet guns as crowd-control measures. The Centre had submitted the said report in a sealed cover before the apex court. The Bench assured the petitioner that the report will be "examined" at the relevant time.