A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sudershan Reddy and Surinder Singh Nijjar passed orders in two politically sensitive cases this week.These orders have caused much controversy over the role of judiciary in constitutional cases. In the first of the two cases, Nandini Sundar v State of Chattisgarh, the judges held that the armed deployment of ill-trained, uneducated and poor tribal youths in combat operations against Naxals by appointing them as...

The Supreme Court order against the Salwa Judum’s vigilantism in Chhattisgarh must be read by all, especially government officials. The details of the civil war in the tribal districts of Chhattisgarh are largely unknown to most readers of this newspaper. For the region is remote and inaccessible, and easily ignored by the national media.   This civil war pits, on the one side, Maoist extremists, and, on the other, a band of...

With Chhattisgarh and the Centre almost decided on filing review petitions against the Supreme Court judgment on the Salwa Judum, it has been left to the petitioners in the case to underscore the historic and constitutional significance of the verdict and to point out to the two governments that any review petition would necessarily strike at the core human values enshrined in the Constitution. In a blow to both the Central...

Chhattisgarh must disarm SPOs, probe their alleged crimes In a blow to both the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre, the Supreme Court has declared illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youth as Special Police Officers — either as ‘Koya Commandos', Salwa Judum or any other force — in the fight against the Maoist Insurgency, and ordered their immediate disarming. The ruling — issued on Tuesday by Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and...

Not satisfied with a probe ordered by the Chhattisgarh government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to immediately take over the investigation into the incidents of violence that occurred in March in Morpalli, Tadmetla and Timmapuram villages in Dantewada district or its neighbouring areas. A Bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar, in an order on a writ petition filed by Professor Nandini Sundar...