Keeping in mind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2004 assurance in Manipur that provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) would be reviewed, the Home Ministry has now taken the proposed amended Act to the Cabinet for a final political decision by the leadership though the Defence Ministry has totally opposed any changes.

Tagged along with the proposed Act are the written objections of the Indian Armed Forces to any vital amendment to the AFSPA so that the Union Cabinet could take a considered view after examining the issue from the Home and Defence Ministry point of view. Simply put, with Defence Ministry refusing to play ball on the issue, the Home Ministry has left the decision to the Prime Minister.

Junking the suggestions of the Justice Jeevan Reddy panel to repeal the Act, the Home Ministry had sought repealing key clause 4(a) that empowers an army officer or a person of equivalent rank to use force, including causing death, after being convinced that the individual is acting in contravention of law in a disturbed area. It had argued that provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) — namely sections 144, 100 and 46 — gave enough legitimacy to the Forces to prohibit assembly of more than five persons, shoot in self defense or kill a person resisting arrest, in that order.

However, the Defence Ministry — speaking on behalf of the Armed Forces deployed in these ‘disturbed’ areas —these were extraordinary situations that had prompted the deployment of the Army or the Air Force. “Since these are not normal policing jobs, if called to do such duties, they must be empowered without getting dragged into court proceedings,” said a Defence Ministry official. It has argued that use of ordinary law like CrPC could result in a magisterial inquiry in the deaths with the onus on the officer to prove his innocence. “The Armed Forces don’t want to be dragged into courts. This would tie their hand and demoralise them,” he added.

... contd.