Plea To Ban Pellet Guns : Supreme Court Asks Delhi Govt To Ensure Treatment For Injured Protesters

While hearing a plea alleging the use of pellet guns by the Rapid Action Force against the student protests in Delhi last week, the Supreme Court on Thursday passed an interim order directing the Delhi Government to ensure that the injured petitioners and other similarly placed persons are given adequate medical treatment.A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was dealing with the petition filed by former IPS officer, Yashovardhan Azad, and two other persons, Prasant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoori. Singh and Mansoori stated that they were victims of pellets fired by the Rapid Action Force(RAF) during the Sansad Chalo demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janata Party on July 20 over the issue of exam paper leaks.At the outset, Justice Bagchi told Advocate Vrinda Grover, for the petitioners, that police regulations allow the use of pellet guns in exceptional circumstances, and without challenging the validity of those regulations, the reliefs might be barred.Grover submitted that as regards the petitioners, metallic pellets were used, and they were recovered from their bodies. "I am not saying pellet guns should not be in the armoury of the RAF or not. Here it is different. They have used metallic pellets..." Grover submitted.Justice Bagchi interrupted her again, saying that the first relief sought in the petition, seeking the ban on use of pellet guns to disperse civilian gatherings, will be vague unless the regulations are challenged. Justice Bagchi said that the Court was "not averse to examining use of pellets in a particular incident", bu the petitioners must show if it was permissible under a "graded approach." Grover clarified that she is confining her reliefs to metallic pellets. She added that there was difficulty in procuring the guidelines of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), and it was with great difficulty that the present document, which pertains to 2016, was obtained through an RTI application. "There is no standing order of the Delhi police which permits the use of pellets. That is why my difficulty arises, and I have to rely on BPRD. If there is such a standing order, the Union may place it on record. I am sure the Union and the Delhi police do not wish to fire pellets on innocent youngsters," she said."I could not find any such standing order of the Delhi police at all," Grover asserted, urging the Court to ask the Union to inform if there is any such instruction. Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, said that he will do whatever is necessary to assist the Court.Grover then raised the issue regarding the treatment of the two petitioners. While one of the petitioners is receiving good treatment, the other petitioner is not, she stated. SG Mehta said that he would have intervened if the issue was brought to his notice through a phone call. "I am not going to burden the Solicitor with phone calls," Grover said. The bench orally told the SG to do the needful regarding the treatment.Grover further requested that an interim order be passed to preserve the ammunition logs relating to the incident. She said that the Supreme Court's interim order of July 28, which directed the preservation of CCTV, drone/body camera footage and wireless logs, does not specifically refer to ammunition logs. The SG said, "Whatever is required for investigation will be preserved."Justice Bagchi said that a bona fide protest may turn violent at any point, perhaps due to infiltration of anti-social elements, and "graded responses" of the law enforcement might be sometimes necessary. The SG said that the forces may to be take on the spot decision based on the events.As per the petition, Singh and Mansoor witnessed that the RAF had suddenly fired a pump action gun, releasing a wide spray of splinter-like pellets, which penetrated their bodies, causing immediate pain and bleeding. It has been stated that they were taken to Lady Hardinge Medical College, where they received surgical intervention for removal of pellets lodged in their body. Singh said he had witnessed at least one more person come to the hospital with pellet injuries.They have sought compensation for all victims against the injuries caused to them."Constrained by the use of kinetic projectiles like metallic pellets for crowd dispersal, which have a propensity to cause serious, debilitating and long-lasting damage to the health of the protestors, the present Public Interest Litigation is filed seeking urgent relief(s) from this Hon'ble Court to safeguard inter-alia the constitutional and fundamental rights of India's youth protestors and civilian assemblies."The petition mentions that the RAF has ordered a verification into the allegation of excesses as a news report revealed that, as per the logbook of the RAF, seven rounds of pellet guns were fired by them on July 20.It has been submitted by the petitioners that the use of pellets is per se unfit for dispersal of peaceful assemblies as...

Plea To Ban Pellet Guns : Supreme Court Asks Delhi Govt To Ensure Treatment For Injured Protesters

Debby Jain

This is a premium content
Available exclusively to
Our subscribers

INR 1099+GST

Tags

Debby Jain

Plea To Ban Pellet Guns : Supreme Court Asks Delhi Govt To Ensure Treatment For Injured Protesters

Debby Jain

This is a premium content Available exclusively to Our subscribers

INR 1099+GST

Tags

Debby Jain

This is a premium content
Available exclusively to
Our subscribers