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| Will AFSPA repeal make any difference? | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 3: What will happen if government of India repeals or amends some provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as demanded by separatist and some mainstream parties? Will it make any difference?
AFSPA is a special legislation. It has been framed to give special powers to the armed forces fighting insurgency in various states. Its section 6 has attracted attention of the human rights defenders, politicians and even social workers because it confers impunity from prosecution.
Surprisingly Section 40 and Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provide similar impunity against arrest and prosecution of the public servants including personnel of the armed forces.
The CrPC was enacted way back in nineteenth century but till date a few people have commented on its deadly fangs. In actual practice, Section 6 of the AFSPA has been overtaken by Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code amended in 1991 to provide virtual impunity to the armed forces. Impunity has been made a feature of normal criminal jurisprudence. In fact Section 197 of CrPC has made section 6 of AFSPA redundant.Being an ordinary law, Sections 40 and 197 of the CrPC are simply overlooked. The human rights defenders and all those who have been demanding repeal of AFSPA must go through Sections 40 and 197 of the CrPC.
No conscious citizen can uphold draconian laws. But why should the axe fall on AFSPA only” Are politicians and human rights defenders scared of demanding repeal of Section 197 CrPC.
Things can move in the right direction only if all the draconian provisions in AFSPA and CrPC are repealed. If Section 6 AFSPA is repealed or amended and Section 197 Cr PC is left untouched, the problem is not solved.
The state government has filed around 400 petitions since 1990 seeking sanction to prosecution from union Home and Defense ministries. Till date not a single petition has been allowed. But, no sanction from New Delhi is needed to bring the erring personnel of the local police to justice. In such cases, the sanction has to be given by the state government. The National Conference and the PDP have also been demanding revocation of the AFSPA but neither PDP nor NC have shown prudence during their regimes.
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