Government asks Justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit to recuse themselves

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, the Central government on Friday told the Supreme Court that its recent direction to order a CBI probe into alleged instances of extra-judicial killings has affected the morale of the armed forces fighting insurgency in Manipur, and demanded that Justices Madan B. Lokur and UU Lalit, who are monitoring the case, stop doing so.

The CBI has so far filed chargesheets in 14 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings on a petition filed by the kin of some victims represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves. Advocate Menaka Guruswamy is the amicus in the case.

These cover a span of two decades during which the armed forces were fighting insurgency in Manipur and were covered under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which gave immunity to the forces. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that those indulging in excesses could not hide behind the Act.


On Friday, attorney general KK Venugopal said that the bench must recuse itself as its demand to know why the CBI had not arrested anybody or if it had chargesheeted them in connection with murder and destruction of evidence created a likelihood of bias against the chargesheeted personnel.

“The highest court says they are murderers. All stand branded. Which trial court will have the courage to go against the top court?” Venugopal asked.

The central government said that the prosecution was also affecting “morale” of the forces fighting insurgency in Manipur.

They are wondering if they are going to face murder charges when they come back. Venugopal backed former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for a host of army officers who made a similar plea to the court.

Rohatgi told the bench: “Jawans are asking officers: ‘Should we fire or not if attacked?’” He said that the chargesheeted officials now will not get bail. “This involves Article 21 (right to liberty).”

The judges clarified that they had not ordered the CBI to arrest, but said that if they had been chargesheeted why had they not been arrested.

The bench offered to clarify that the trial court will not take its remarks into account, but Rohatgi insisted that the bench recuse itself. “Let another bench monitor the CBI probe,” he said. The court eventually reserved its orders on this.