Supreme Court directs Assam Human Rights Commission to probe allegations of police encounters

A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant directed the Human Rights Commission to notify the victims and affected parties. File | Photo Credit: PTI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 28, 2025) tasked the Assam State Human Rights Commission to investigate individually each of the over 170 alleged fake police encounters in the State between May 2021 and August 2022.

A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant directed the Human Rights Commission to notify the victims and affected parties, so that they received an opportunity to be heard in each case.

“The victims’ voices must be heard, not as a matter of courtesy but as a matter of right,” the court underscored.

Justice Kant said the victims had chosen silence either out of fear or a lack of resources.

The apex court said an omnibus judicial direction on a mere compilation of cases was not fair as of now. A “fair, impartial and independent investigation” required to be done first, and would be legally justified.

“Some of these cases involve fake encounters and are indeed serious. If proven, they would amount to a grave violation of Article 21…Court directions without individual scrutiny of cases would lead to miscarriage of justice either by shielding the guilty or stigmatising legitimate action by public servants discharging their duties in challenging circumstances,” Justice Kant, who pronounced the judgment, observed.

The investigation must delicately balance the right to procedural safeguards, and the rights of victims’ families to be heard, the court said.

However, Justice Kant acknowledged that barring a few cases, it was not clear if procedural safeguards put in place by the Supreme Court in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) case judgment of 2014 while investigating police encounters were violated by the State of Assam.

The State itself has acknowledged that some cases needed to be looked into again.

The Bench asked the Human Rights Commission to conduct the probe with “diligence, sensitivity and abiding commitment”.

The judgment came in a plea seeking an independent investigation into 171 alleged fake police encounters in Assam.

The petitioner had challenged a January 2023 order of the Gauhati High Court, which dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) over the encounters by the Assam Police.

In its order, the High Court referred to an affidavit of the Assam government stating the 171 incidents took place between May 2021 and August 2022, in which 56 people died, including four in custody, and 145 were injured.

On October 22, 2024, the top court termed the situation “very serious” and sought details, including on the probe conducted in these matters.

In July 2023, it sought responses from the Assam government and others on the plea challenging the High Court order.

The petitioner claimed before the High Court that over 80 “fake encounters” had been conducted by the Assam Police from May 2021 till the filing of the writ petition, resulting in 28 deaths.

Published - May 28, 2025 08:59 pm IST