NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the UP government’s response to a PIL seeking a CBI probe, monitored by a retired SC judge, into controversial police encounters in the state.
Appearing for petitioner People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), advocate Sanjay Parekh told a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud that the NGO intended to bring to the SC’s notice “incidents of massive administrative liquidation taking place in UP in blatant violation of rule of law, legal and constitutional protection available to citizens, including right to life”.
The CJI-led bench asked PUCL to give a copy of the petition to UP’s additional advocate general Aishwarya Bhati and asked her to file the state’s response to the petiton within two weeks. The SC posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
PUCL, in its petition, said: “Facts available in public domain reveal that over 1,100 encounters have taken place in the past year, wherein 49 persons were killed and 370 were injured.” Parekh said UP police was in gross violation of the SC-declared law as police had gone about carrying out ‘encounters’ with impunity. It quoted the CM as having said on November 19 last year that “everyone should be guaranteed security, but those who want to disturb peace of society and believe in the gun, should be given the answer in the language of the gun itself”.
Encounters self-defence against criminals, says UP Police ADG: “Proliferating gun culture has given criminals the audacity to fire at police. Encounters are not a part of state policy, they are an act of self-defence by policemen being fired upon by criminals,” Anand Kumar, additional director-general (law and order) said.
