The Supreme Court will next month hear a plea by over 350 Army personnel challenging the dilution of protection available to them under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act — or AFSPA — and registration of FIRs against them for carrying out operations in areas such as Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.
The petition came up on Monday before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, which said it has to be heard by a special bench of Justices Lokur and U U Lalit, which is dealing with registration of FIRs against soldiers operating in Manipur in connection with alleged fake encounters.
The court will now take up the matter on September 4.
On July 14, 2017, the bench of Justices Lokur and Lalit had ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI to probe the alleged fake encounters.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi agreed that it must be heard by the same bench that is dealing with the Manipur encounters.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners in the Manipur encounter cases, objected to the fresh plea and said that it appears to…