Kill the encounter, it undermines rule of law, Pg10

Key Highlights:

• Police encounters, or extrajudicial killings, are becoming a routine occurrence across India, notably in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Supreme Court in People's Union for Civil Liberties v. State of Maharashtra (2014) established 16 mandatory guidelines for investigating police encounters resulting in death.
• These guidelines include mandatory registration of an FIR, independent investigation, and a magisterial inquiry.
• The Supreme Court reaffirmed the binding nature of these safeguards in Arif Md. Yeasin Jwadder v. State of Assam (2023), emphasizing their enforcement irrespective of victim or family initiation.
• Uttar Pradesh reported 17,043 police encounter operations between March 2017 and May 2023, with 256 criminals eliminated since 2017.

Detailed Insights:

• The increasing frequency of police encounters raises concerns about the erosion of due process and the rule of law in the criminal justice system.
• Public defense of such actions by political leaders, often termed "instant justice," can undermine institutional credibility and accountability.
• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) registered 2,955 deaths in police encounters from April 1998 to March 2018, with few convictions.
• The PUCL v. State of Maharashtra judgment mandates that these guidelines are to be treated as law under Article 141 of the Indian Constitution.
• In the Arif Md. Yeasin Jwadder case, the Supreme Court directed the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to conduct an independent inquiry into alleged fake encounters in Assam.
• The legitimacy of the criminal justice system relies on fairness, certainty, and credibility of due process, not on the speed or spectacle of punishment.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Rule of Law: A principle where all individuals and institutions, including the government, are subject to and accountable under the law, ensuring no one is above it.
• Due Process of Law: A legal principle ensuring fair treatment through established legal procedures, protecting individuals from arbitrary deprivation of life, liberty, or property.
• Extrajudicial Killing: The unlawful killing of a person by government agents without any legal process or judicial authorization.