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No FIR against Major Aditya without government sanction, Centre tells apex court

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 3/19/2018 7:09:16 PM

Questioning the FIR filed against Major Aditya by Jammu and Kashmir Police regarding the killing of two stone pelters in Shopian on January 27, the Centre told the Supreme Court that no case can be filed against him without the prior sanction of the government.

An FIR was lodged by J&K Police against Major Aditya of 10 Garhwal Rifles and others on January 27 in Shopian under the Ranbir Penal Code.

In a fresh plea, the Centre told the court, “The Union of India has considered the matter extensively and is of the view that there is a total bar to the institution of a legal proceeding in the present case, except with the previous sanction of the Central government.”

Citing Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Power’s Act, which deals with protection of persons acting in good faith, the Centre said, “According to this provision, no prosecution, suit or other legal proceedings shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central government against any person in respect of anything done or purported to have been done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.”

The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the Centre’s plea alongwith a petition filed by Major Aditya’s father Lt Col Karamveer Singh challenging the FIR on April 24.

Lt Col Karamveer said his son was wrongly and arbitrarily named in the FIR as the incident relates to an Army convoy that was on bonafide military duty in an area under the AFSPA and was isolated by an unruly and deranged mob pelting stones, causing damage to military vehicles.

The Centre also cited an earlier notification of J&K Home Department, which stated that when the state is in a disturbed condition, the use of armed forces in the aid of civil power is necessary to prevent terror activities.

The Centre also said that a five-judge bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court had held that where a police officer causes death of a person acting or purporting to act in discharge of official duties or in self-defence, the circumstance under which it happened has to be written down but was not done so in Major Aditya’s case.

Early this month, the court had questioned how the government could treat Army officers like ordinary criminals.