The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre, the Jammu and Kashmir government and rights panel NHRC to respond to a plea for framing a policy to safeguard army personnel from stone-throwing mobs that obstruct them during anti-insurgency operations in the state.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notices to the Union ministries of home and defence; the state government and the National Human Rights Commission on the writ petition filed by two students, Kajal Mishra and Preeti Kedar Gokhale.
Kajal is the daughter of a retired subedar, Anuj Kumar Mishra. Preeti’s father, Lt Col Kedar Gokhale, is a serving army officer.
The matter is expected to be taken up after four weeks.
The petition filed through advocate Neela Gokhale urged the court to direct the respondents “to formulate a policy to safeguard the rights of armed forces personnel against human rights violations” by mobs or individuals while discharging their military duties, thereby protecting their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 (life and liberty) of the Constitution.
The joint petition by the girls, both in their teens, said they were “greatly disturbed” by incidents of disruptive mobs pelting soldiers and army convoys with stones in areas like Shopian in south Kashmir.
The petitioners said they were disturbed by troops having to “suffer the ire” of stone-throwers while discharging their duty of “maintaining peace and security”.
The petition pointed out that stone-throwers had injured 641 army personnel in 2015. While the number of injured had risen to 9,235 in 2016, the year that saw massive protests in the Valley after the killing of militant poster boy Burhan Wani, about 1,690 army personnel were injured in 2017, it said.
The students regretted that India does not have a standalone law to tackle stone-throwing mobs, but several other countries had stringent measures.
While offenders can be jailed for life in the US, the petition said, the punishment could be 10 years in prison in Israel, 14 years in New Zealand and 15 years in Turkey.
According to the petitioners, more often than not FIRs are filed against troops if they take action against stone-throwers in retaliation or in self-defence.
Last year, police had registered a case “under relevant sections” against the army after some youths were killed when soldiers opened indiscriminate fire on a stone-throwing mob in a village in Shopian district.
The teens said they had no problem with complaints or FIRs being filed against soldiers for any criminal act, but were aggrieved that no such action is taken against those who attack armed forces personnel.
The petition said it was “shocking” that a “former chief minister of the state of J&K” had declared in the legislative Assembly that “as many as 9,760 FIRs registered against stone-pelters shall be withdrawn as they were first-time offenders”.
