Provide medical treatment to pellet gun victims: SC orders Delhi
What's the story
The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi government to provide proper medical treatment to the individuals allegedly injured by the use of pellet guns during the student protest. At the same time, it said police forces can be permitted to use pellet guns in exceptional situations. The statement came during hearings on a batch of petitions arising out of the July 20 Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protest at Jantar Mantar, during which several protesters were allegedly injured by pellet guns.
Order
SC seeks Delhi police's graded use-of-force standing order
The bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also asked the Delhi Police to submit its standing order on the graded use of force in crowd-control situations.
It has issued a notice to the central government, seeking its response on rules regulating police deployment of pellet guns.
The petitioners argued that the firing of metallic pellets by the Rapid Action Force (RAF) violated established guidelines and requested judicial scrutiny.
Argument presented
Nature of crowd should determine weapon use: Petitioners
Senior advocate Vrinda Grover, representing the petitioners, argued that the weapons used against protesters fired "kinetic metallic projectiles," which differ from rubber or plastic pellets.
She contended that the nature of the crowd should determine weapon use and argued that protesters were not a violent mob.
However, Justice Bagchi observed, "But police rules allow the use in exceptional circumstances unless you challenge the rules themselves. One of the steps of graded approach is use of pellet guns."
Legal inquiry
We are not averse to examining the use of pellets
The court expressed willingness to examine if the use of pellet guns was justified in this case.
However, it emphasized that petitioners must prove their deployment violated the graded use-of-force framework.
Justice Bagchi said, "We are not averse to examining....use of pellets...You have to show us if graded response use of pellets can be allowed when even bullets are used in some situations."
CJI Kant suggested petitioners could seek court-mandated guidelines on pellet gun use instead of a blanket challenge.
Proposed solution
Petitioner sought banning of wholly or partly metallic kinetic projectiles
The court eventually asked the petitioners to amend the plea and challenge the rules allowing pellet gun use.
The matter originates from a writ petition filed by retired IPS officer Yashovardhan Azan, Prasant Kumar Singh, and Sheikh Irshad Mansoori, who claim they were injured when RAF fired pellet guns to disperse demonstrators.
The petitioner sought directions banning the use of wholly or partly metallic kinetic projectiles/pellets fired from pump-action rifles for crowd dispersal and compensation for those injured.