Ordeal for victims of Punjab encounter deaths continue

George Iype in New Delhi

They waited six long years to be told by the Central Bureau of Investigation that members of their family were killed and buried by the Punjab police in the name of combating terrorism in the state.

Relatives of nearly 3,000 people murdered in fake encounters at the height of militancy in Punjab will have to wait for another decade to get the compensation that the government has promised.

Six months after the Supreme Court asked the National Human Rights Commission to fix the quantum of compensation to the relatives of 'these fake encounters victims' a tedious legal wrangle has overtaken a genuine human rights need.

The NHRC has claimed it is not empowered to look into these cases "as they are more than one year old" under the National Human Rights Act, 1993. Section 36, 2 of the Act says the NHRC 'shall not inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to have been committed.'

Thus for the past six months, legal experts at the NHRC and home ministry have been engaged in interpreting and debating 'the scope and subject matter of an order' from the Supreme Court.

Thus the Commission held three hearings on the subject in the last six months and finally concluded the NRHC can be designed sui generis to perform certain functions and adjudicate certain issues entrusted and referred to it by the Supreme Court.

But since determining the compensation package for the Punjab victims is "a complex matter," the NHRC has now written to the home secretary to assist it in undertaking the task. Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah has not yet got back to the Commission.

A senior NHRC official told Rediff On The NeT that fixing up the quantum of compensation to some 3,000 people will be "a mammoth task," and it will take "many years to take up each case individually."

As per the NHRC procedure, each case has to be tried before the Commission's five-member jury. The NHRC jury at present holds two to three hearings a week.

"The Commission's hearing on the Punjab fake encounters will be a protracted one," the official said, adding that this is the first time that the NHRC is "dealing with the concept and content of the idea of compensation."

The NHRC has issued notices to the two petitioners -- Paramjit Kaur and the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab -- as well as to the Punjab chief secretary, home secretary and the director general of police to submit their versions on the alleged brutalities on innocent people.

Criminal proceedings against Punjab police officers began when the Supreme Court asked the CBI to investigate the fake encounters and mass burial of innocent people during the years of terrorism in the state.

The agency submitted its report to the court in 1996. The report said the CBI during its investigations fully identified 585 bodies and partially identified 272 bodies. It could not, however, identify 1,239 bodies. The CBI also found a dozen senior police officers prima facie guilty in these cases.