The petitioners contended that the court, during a hearing on July 30, had referred to the accused — who have been chargesheeted by the SIT in some of the encounter cases — as “murderers”, and this was likely to affect their case. (File)

THE SUPREME Court on Monday dismissed the applications filed by some Manipur Police personnel seeking recusal of the two judges monitoring the cases of alleged fake encounters by security forces in the state.

The petitioners contended that the court, during a hearing on July 30, had referred to the accused — who have been chargesheeted by the SIT in some of the encounter cases — as “murderers”, and this was likely to affect their case.

Dismissing the pleas, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit said: “…the apprehension that the observations said to have been made by this court on 30th July, 2018, would influence the SIT is erroneous… The apprehension expressed by the applicants/ petitioners that due to the observations said to have been made by this court, there would be interference in the investigations by the SIT… is not real or justified”.

The cases are being investigated by an SIT set up by the CBI following the court’s orders.

“The SIT is independent and so far, no allegation of unfairness has been made against the functioning of the SIT. Observations made by this court, or any court for that matter, cannot impact the investigations, as long as they are conducted by professionals, and we have no doubt that the SIT does consist of professionals who will not be swayed by any observations made by this court during the continuing mandamus process,” said the bench.

Supporting the plea for recusal of the judges, Attorney General K K Venugopal had said that the reported reference by the bench to some of the accused personnel as “murderers” had “completely shaken” the morale of the forces.

“Armed forces in Manipur are fighting insurgency and secession. A large number of soldiers are killed by insurgents who use various methods… In the midst of it, this direction from court… It has completely shaken the morale of the forces… Before even cognizance is taken, if the highest court of the country declares there are murderers roaming in the streets of Imphal, all 41 of them stand branded,” he had said.

Calling this “a rather overbroad submission”, the court said: “It should be clear to everyone that officers and personnel of the Indian Army, paramilitary forces and the state police are made of much sterner stuff than is sought to be projected and they can hardly be demoralised by observations said to have been made by anybody. It is unfortunate that a bogey of demoralisation of the Indian Army, paramilitary forces and the state police is being raised… To contend that some observations said to have been made by this court have demoralised the Indian Army, the paramilitary forces and the Manipur Police is suggestive of a weakness in them. Be that as it may, this is really stretching the argument to the vanishing point.”

Stating that “we are fortunate to have an independent judiciary”, the court said that so far as the case was concerned, “there has been no allegation of any kind that any trial judge dealing with the case has shown a lack of independence… Therefore, it is inappropriate for the applicants/ petitioners to harbour any apprehension that the trial judge(s) would be influenced by the observations said to have been made by this Court on 30th July, 2018. The applicants/ petitioners are indirectly, perhaps unwittingly, questioning the fairness and independence of the judiciary”.

Saying that nobody doubted the impartiality of the SIT, it said: “Even though there is no reason for the applicants/ petitioners to entertain any doubt that the SIT or the judiciary would be influenced by the observations said to have been made by this court, to remove any vestige of doubt, we make it absolutely clear that any observations made or said to have been made on 30th July, 2018… are not intended to, and should not in any manner be construed as, compromising the independence, integrity and fairness of the SIT and the concerned judges.”

The court said “institutional integrity of the CBI and the judiciary is positively required to be maintained”.

The court, which is hearing a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur, had, on July 14 last year, constituted the SIT and ordered filing of FIRs. The main petitions will come up for hearing on November 26.