The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear on Monday the plea of a serving lieutenant Colonel to quash an FIR against his son, a Major in the Army's 10 Garhwal Rifles.
While the Army enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) for deaths caused in the official course of duty, the J&K Police disregarded this fact and slapped murder charge against Major Aditya Kumar. The incident was of January 27 at Shopian when an unruly mob of stone pelters attacked an Army convoy and was about to lynch one of the Army personnel when Major Aditya issued warning and later opened fire at the mob killing two youths.
Petitioner lt Col Karamveer Singh pointed out these facts in his petition that was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra on Friday. Advocate Aishwarya Bhatti who appeared for the petitioner sought an urgent listing of the matter to which the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, "We will hear it on Monday."
In a related development, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken cognisance of a complaint filed by three children of Army officers alleging violation of human rights of the force's personnel in recent incidents of stone-pelting in Jammu & Kashmir. In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said the complainants have also sought its "intervention for an appropriate enquiry into the incident of stone-pelting and assault by an unruly and disruptive mob on Army personnel in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on January 27".
Singh stated in his petition before the SC that his son has been "wrongly and arbitrarily" named in the FIR as the incident relates to an Army convoy on bonafide military duty in an area under the AFSPA. He said that order to fire was on bonafide orders received after he was isolated by an "unruly and deranged" mob pelting stones and causing damage to military vehicles.
He said that the intention of his son was to save Army personnel and property and the fire was inflicted "only to impair and provide a safe escape from a savage and violent mob engaged in terrorist activity".
Singh also referred to last year's incident of a mob lynching of DSP Mohd Ayub Pandith to apprise the top court of the situation in the State and the condition in which Army officials are working to control mobs in Kashmir.
The petitioner is constrained to file the present writ petition for quashing of the FIR, directly before this court in view of the extremely hostile situation on the ground, whereby an FIR has been registered by local police against the son of the petitioner, who is a service Army officer and was performing bonafide duties as directed by the Union of India.