SC verdict on Salwa Judum

The Centre will soon hold discussions with CMs of various states to figure out the repercussions of the Supreme Court verdict striking down the recruitment of Special Police Officers as unconstitutional. Union home minister P Chidambaram said that the Centre and states need to figure out the fallout of the SC verdict for the law enforcement operations. “Some areas of the judgment which are to be read carefully, reflected upon carefully and I would have to discuss it with the CMs concerned to see what impact it will have on the anti-Maoist operations.” While the SC’s order came on a plea challenging the use of SPOs by the Chhattisgarh government in the anti-Naxal fight, it can have repercussions for other state governments which engage auxiliaries to fight terrorists and extremists and for other law and order challenges. The recruitment of Chhattisgarh SPOs is partly funded by the Centre. “There are a number so took exception to of directions issued to the Chhattisgarh government and the judges have asked for a compliance report from the Union government and the Chhattisgarh government within six weeks,” Chidambaram said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Chhattisgarh government to disband and disarm 6,500 special police officers (SPOs) engaged in anti-Maoist operations, putting the state, which has borne the brunt of ultra-Left violence, in a fix on how to deal with the threat. Blaming the Maoist violence on the iniquitous policies of the state and striking down the centrallyfunded scheme to arm tribal youth as a counterweight to extremists, a bench ordered the Union government “to cease and desist, forthwith, from using any of its funds in supporting, directly or indirectly the recruitment of SPOs for the purposes of engaging in any form of counter-insurgency activities against Maoist/Naxalite groups”. Chhattisgarh has recruited the SPOs from among the ranks of the Salwa Judum, a campaign by anti-Maoist tribals who enjoy the support of the state and the political class. Sources in Chhattisgarh described the verdict as a setback to the fight against Maoists, and said the Raman Singh government may consider seeking a review. In its 80-page order, the bench said, “The appointment of tribal youths as SPOs, who are barely literate, for temporary periods, and armed with firearms, had endangered and will necessarily endanger the human rights of others in society.” The bench said that while it would not condone the acts of violence against the state by Naxals, the genesis of the problem lay in the flawed socio-economic policies of the governments. “The policy of privatization has also meant that the state has incapacitated itself from devoting adequate financial resources in building the capacity to control the social unrest that has been unleashed,” the bench said. The judgment could deal a body blow to anti-Naxal operations in six states where the Centre has financed the recruitment of SPOs to help under-staffed constabulary deal with the Maoist challenge. However, Chhattisgarh will be worst hit. Strapped for manpower in a terrain where the extremists have effectively used numerical edge, familiarity with terrain and guerilla tactics to kill hundreds of security forces, the state has relied on SPOs drawn from among local tribals as a complement.