Petition in Supreme Court Seeks Ban on Pellet Guns
Two protesters injured during a Delhi demonstration have petitioned the apex court to decommission pellet guns for civilian crowd control nationwide
Synopsis
A writ petition filed by two men in the Supreme Court has asked for a ban on the pellet gun for civilian protests across the country on the grounds that the gun fired pellets at their body during an anti-government protest in Delhi on July 20. The plea alleges that the weapon is unconstitutional because it is not proportionate or necessary.
AdvertisementThe Petition
Former IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad, Prasant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoori have filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, which has asked for directions to decommission the pellet guns used by law enforcement officials for crowd dispersal.
They were hit by pellets fired by the Rapid Action Force at the Sansad Chalo demonstration on July 20 by the Cockroach Janta Party demanding that the exam paper-leak scandal be investigated.
AdvertisementWhat the Petitioners claim
The petitioners had been injured by the bullets fired by the RAF, which sprayed a number of splinter-like pellets into the petitioners' bodies causing them pain and bleeding, and then proceeded to undergo surgery for the removal of the pellets at Lady Hardinge Medical College, the petitioners claimed.
The plea alleges the RAF's logbook showed that they fired seven rounds of pellet guns on July 20, which led to an internal check.
The Legal Argument
The petitioners say that the use of pellets is unfit for peaceful assemblies as it does not meet the constitutional requirements of proportionality, necessity and reasonableness as it is required that a peaceful assembly be first commanded to disperse, before civil force can be used, from Section 148 of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
A Persistent Legal Conflict
This is not the judiciary's first experience with the pellet-gun issue. The petition for a ban has been pending from 2016 when the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association went to court after hundreds of people were injured during unrest in Kashmir Valley.
AdvertisementThe J&K High Court had earlier refused to impose the blanket ban, declaring that it was "inevitable" to use force against "unruly mobs" and instructing the Centre to look for alternatives through an expert committee.
The recommendations of that committee were not finally taken up for any action and the ongoing Delhi-based petition seeks to revive a discussion that has been ongoing for almost ten years.
Why It Matters
It comes at a time when the country is under greater pressure regarding policing tactics against the CJP-led protests and could be used to test the Supreme Court's willingness to establish a nation-wide benchmark on less-lethal weapons, instead of letting the matter be resolved through litigation at the state level as has happened since 2016.
