The recent judgment of the Supreme Court holding the deployment of tribal youth as salwa judum for counter insurgency operations to be unconstitutional is quite a landmark judgement. It is a landmark for many reasons. This PIL has been in the Supreme Court for the last 3 -4 years and several interim orders were passed. Unlike the history of recent PILs where the entire case is made up of interim orders and then only to fizzle out in the end, this PIL is radically different. It has emerged with its final order with the Supreme Court holding the salwa judum to be in violation of Article 14 and 21 and directing the State of Chhattisgarh to immediately stop using SPOs for counter terrorism or anti-naxalite activities. Such a result, I strongly believe, has resulted because it is primarily a civil rights issue. The PIL did include social rights issues of the right to education and work etc., but it was primarily a civil rights issue which resulted in the final path breaking judgment. It was also remarkable because it reflected the work that the Petitioners had put in. Success in mammoth PILs like this requires everyone, the Petitioners and their counsels to put in immense amount of research and work.
I particularly liked this paragraph from the judgment...
"The Constitution casts a positive obligation on the State to undertake all such necessary steps in order to protect the fundamental rights of all citizens, and in some cases even of non-citizens, and achieve for the people of India conditions in which their human dignity is protected and they are enabled to live in conditions of fraternity."
The judgment can be accessed here.
