Extra-Judicial Killings

Author(s): K. G. Kannabiran
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Mar. 23, 1996, Vol. 31, No. 12 (Mar. 23, 1996),
pp. 705-707
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 Extra-Judicial Killings release so speedily when our liberties were
forfeited?" The collector recollecting this
incident latermerely observed that the people
K G Kannabiran had become intelligent! Students belonging
to the Sikh community in Bidar were lynched
in 1987 by Hindus and later in Tsunduru in
Today the exercise of evenr Iihuiian right is seent as a crime and the
Guntur district (AP) dalits were slaughtered.
adjudicatory system is tf aiid of disciplining the police anld the arned cut to pieces. packed in gunny sacks and
forces for fear of conselt vl nces'. A system that is not prepared to risk thrown intt) canals. Many 'informed and
the absence of state viok :e(e can never tolerate any attempt to secuire educated' people felt that these atrocities
human rights. A campaigni jor humiian rights must address itself to the were justitied by the eve teasing that Sikh
students, dalits indulged in.
system the state sponsors.
These merely serve to illustrate who needs
to be educated on human rights. The poor
ONE of Kelsen's critics dealing with his Hyderabad) and sat at the place where usually who define human rights in terms of the
attitude to the tasks of jurists caricatured a villagers congregate. Slowly the villagers violations they are subjected to and are
conversation between ajurist and a legislator turned up one by one and with a view to witness to know fully well that these cannot
as follows: put them at their ease I started conversing be remedied except by organising them-
Your neither know nor care what kind of with them. I gradually came to the killings selves politically. They find that organised
laws you should make. That appertains to in Giraypalli by the police. According to the political action is the only way to fight for
the art of legislation, which is foreign to us.
police these four boys who were killed in human rights. In the process they also learn
Pass laws as you wish. Once you have done encounters were alleged to have killed a that social transformation into a human
so, we shall explain to you in Latin what local moneylender, one Donthula Anthaiah. societyalonewillfreethemfromtheseviolations.
kind of a law you have passed. In the course of my conversation with them And this is the question that should enter
This fairly summarises the state of I said "They say that these four men killed into whole debate on human rights in India
legislative process. law and interpretative Donthula Anthaiah and if that is true what at any rate. It is not the people who need
agencies by which one gets acquainted with is wrong with the police killing them?" To to be educated in human rights. It is the
and educated in law. Simple propositions at this an undernourished half-nakel shepherd judges who upheld the Emergency of 1975
higher levels of debate and interpretative replied, "Sir what are the courts there for". who were in need of such education. It is
exercises tend to become obscure, with the This is the rule of law in quintessence. His the public servants who are put in charge
result that education as a way of dissemina- experience in reacting to these institutions of govemance who nced to be educated. The
ting knowledge and improving the capacity provided him with this principle. I finished first step in this education is to learn to
to comprehend reality fails. This situation my work in Giraypalli and returned to the perceive and acknowledge the structural
is exemplified in the discourse on human high court. As I entered the Bar Association, violence present in society and its institu-
rights and one wonders as to who should four young advocates came up to me and tions. Murder has been committed if
be educated and who needs instruction on after discussing the proceedings in the thousands are allowed to die of starvation
human rights. Very often we hear the Bhargava Commission asked me "Mr or if they have been forced into a situation
educated and the artioulate say "we must Kannabiran why should these naxalites who in which it is impossible to survive. Murder
create an awareness of rights among the do not believe in the Constitution be given has been committed when you stand by and
poor". I have had a very active life in the protection under the Constitution?" I narrated permit assault and slaughter of the members
human rights field for over two-and-a-half my encounter with the shepherd and told of a minority community or dalits. Murder
decades and my experience has been them that their parents had wasted hard will be an ongoing process if we allow
otherwise. earned money in educating them. Similarly domestic violence and rape to go unchecked
To illustrate the point: Immediately after I was arguing for the commutation of the and women are not recognised as persons.
the Emergency Jayaprakash Nar4yan ap- death sentence imposed on two naxalites, It is only when we recognise that murder
pointed the Civil Rights Committee headed Kishta Goud and Bhoomaiah before a bench of this kind is as culpable as the murder
by V M Tarkunde to inquire into the killings in the AP High Court; a junior judge on the committed by an individual that we can
of naxalites in staged encounters and he bepch asked me the same question. I had to assume that our human rights education has
limited the period of the inquiry to 13 monthssay that, "when such issues come before this commenced. The murders which our society
of the Emergency (1975). I was the member court, it is our values which are on trial and engenders may appear passive when
secretary of this committee which published not theirs". compared with Auschwhitz but the logic is
two reports which led to the appointment of Recently. in a tribal village in Srikakulam the same. Barrington Moore Jr in his Social
a one-man commission of enquiry presided district the tribals of the village put an Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
overby the late Vashisht Bharghava, a retired intransigent and violent landlord underhouse points out that the French Revolutionary
Supreme Court judge. arrest. These tribals were not naxalites. When terror must be seen as a response to the
The very first encounter killing investi- news of this 'wrongful' confinement reached prevailing social order which always grinds
gated was that of four young boys between the collector he rushed to the spot and secured out its toll of needless death year after year.
18 and 22 years. who were apprehended and the release of the landlord and lectured to Moore points out it would be enlightening
shot at a place called Giraypalli, in Siddipet the tribals about the rights the landlord has to calculate the death rate of the 'ancien
taluk, Medak district. During the enquiry I and how they had violated his rights. After regime' from such factors as preventible
received information that some special branch listening to this lecture the tribals asked the starvation and injustice. To dwell on the
officers were trying to tamper with the collector, "Have you or any other officer horrors of revolutionary violence, while
witnesses who volunteered to depose before ever lectured the landlord when he was forgetting the continuing violence during
justice Bhargava. That very day I reached continually violating our rights? Have you normal times, Moore points out, is partisan
the place (it is a couple of hours away from ever rushed to the village and secured our hypocrisy.

Economic and Political Weekly March 23, 1996 705

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 This leads us to the crucial fact that in a
stagnant society where all the institutions of
the state are structured to perpetuate the
status quo, the human rights movement
assumes a political character and is looked
upon as radical politics. All civil liberties
struggles are perceived as extremist activity.
They are propagated as supporters of
extremist, secessionist politics and are
frequently subjected to assault. Three of my
good colleagues in the Andhra Pradesh
Civil Liberties Committee were gunned
down with no protest worth the notice
excepting by the APCLC. The rule of law
stood suspended in these cases and in
others as well. Because of this perception
and the looming threat of state violence
that membership in these organisations
invite, not many people are willing to enter
the field of personal liberty. While the
voluntary sector of NGOs is performing
very valuable work in the field of human
rights for women, children and bonded
labour, for conscientisation, health, alter-
nate or appropriate technology, etc, this
work is not seen as a threat to the existing
social order and the government encourages
the voluntary sector to carry on a broad
programme for social justice. There are
just about 10 to 12 organisations working
in the field of human rights and dealing with
the personal liberty of people fighting for
social justice and against an exploitative
order.
Human rights education in this country
would thus mean educating public servants,
members of parliament and legislatures on
the rule of law, on the constitutional value
system and democracy. We need this to
transform this society into one where social.
economic and political Justice would be
present in all its institutions. As a first step
we should learn to stop defining every
political activity as a crime and realise that
a law and order approach is a short-term
strategy which if perpetuated for long
periods would make governance anti-
democratic and unconstitutional. Today the
exercise of every human right is seen as a
crime and the result is that the adjudicatory
system is afraid of proceeding to discipline
the police and armed forces to act according
to law for 'fear of consequences'. A system
that is not prepared to risk the absence of
state violence can never tolerate any attempt
to secure human rights in reality. A campaign
for human rights must address itselt' to the
system the state sponsors. The campaign
should have an unwavering faith in the rule
of law. The rule of law broadly deflined
ensures the presence of democracy. And
human rights can survive only in a demo-
cracy. Human rights violations can abate
only when society permits dlemocratic
processes to work ['or social transfo)rna-
706 Economic and
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Political Weekly March 23. 1996
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tion. It is, therefore, necessary to restructure Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist. who ments. The UJnited Nations General Assembly
institutions to create a climate for human analysed skeletal remains to expose atro- subsequently endorsed the principles by
rights and democracy. cities committed by state officials in several Resolution 44/162 of December 1989 and
countries, observed 'The great mass murders recommended that the principles, "shall be
REPRESSIVE STRUCURES
of our time have accounted tor no more taken into account and respected by
Looking back briefly when we entered our than a few hundred victims. In contrast, governments within the framework of their
first year of independence we did not make states that have chosen to murder their own national legislation and practices, and shall
a clean break with our colonial past. The citizens can usually count their victims by be brought to the attention of law enforce-
legal and administrative structure were the carload lot. As tor motive the state has ment and criminal justice officials, military
totally British Indian and the judicial system no peers. It will kill its victim for a careless personnel, lawyers, members of the execu-
was a mere continuation of what the British word, a fleeting thought, or even a poem; tive and legislative bodies of the government
had set up. The repressive legal structure people arc being killed for their political and the public in general".
created by the British to deal with the strug-
views, tor belonging to a particular com- But has the National Human Rights Com-
gle lor freedom (called Terrorism by the munity and a panic-stricken state looks mission powers to enforce these principles?
British), and to contain the non-cooperationupon even poverty as treason. All these acts Obviously it has not. Had the government
civil disobedience movements, still continue are indulged in by governments and the taken any steps suggested in this resolution?
on the statute book and continue to be magnitude of their crimes defies belief." Do any of these principles expressly or by
enforced in independent India. Summing up their experience the UN implication contravene any constitutional
At another level we had a hierarchically working group on Enforced or Involuntary principles or any other law in force? Or
structured society which we never attempted Disappearances pointed out "The working does the government think there has never
to alter. There was no debate on the caste group's experience over the past 10 years been any extra judicial arbitrary killings in
system or its practices within the constituent
hag confirmed the age-old adage that this country? Would we be right in invoking
assembly. There was no proposal on the impunity breeds contempt for the law. Per- any exceptional circumstance including a
agenda to abolish the caste structure. The petrators of human rights violations, whether threat of war to justify the continuation of
Constitution abolished bonded labour, child civilian or military, will become all the more these practices?The answerto these questions
labour and made the practice of untouch- brazen when they are not held to account would inform us how serious we are about
ability penal. Significantly it did not declarebefore a country of law". Thus large-scale human rights.
the caste system invalid and ban caste murders seemingly unnoticed by govern- We have in this country an established
practices excepting the few mentioned in ments come tfrom a cultivated ignorance,
tradition of fighting arbitrary and authori-
Article 15(2). The clause prohibiting dis- which refuses to recognise these crimes and tarian trends. We firmly believe that all
crimination as between castes only alftirins
dismisses them as mere excesses and debates on human rights should lead to
and strengthens the caste system. There was aberrations not unduly disturbing. This culti-
strengthening the human rights movement
no recognition of the fact that the caste vated ignorance permeates the entire field to fight these trends. If the struggle for
system was an assault on human rights. ot governance and any campaign oreducation human rights is our political praxis we must
While Articles 17.23 and 24 were addressed should expose this attitude of the executive, carry on this fight not only inside the courts
to society the other articles guaranteeing judiciary and the people's representatives. and before National Human Rights Com-
other rights and the right to equality are It is this cultivated ignorance which is res- mission but also in the political arenaoutside.
addressed to the state. The result is that the ponsible tor the enacting of a stunted piece
practice of inequality in the case ot woiren ot legislation. viz, The Human Rights
and the subordinate castes has continued Protection Act 1993. which created the
unhindered in the society. All struggles for National Human Rights Commilssion with FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF
rights have always centred around the court. practically no powers. The government and
In this country, after the coming into lorce the parliiament recognised violiation ot'human INDIAN PUBLICATIONS ON
of the Constitution. the key word is legality rights both by the terrorists and the govern-
which even today continues to be the obses- mental agencies. They brought lorth two HisToRy,
sional leitmotif. Social action litigation is statutes. one the Terrorists and Disruptive
POLITICS,
the preoccupation of all NGOs. Mobilising Activities Act and the other tor the Protection
people on issues of human rights, and other of Human Rights. The former was an arbi- ECONOMICS,
democratic issues have become rare. A non- trary procedural and penal code fully
elected court is called upon repeatedly to equipped to punish terrorists, the latter merely
SOCIOLOGY,
adjudicate political issues. This trend hasenabled the statutory body to report on the ANTHROPOLOGY,
trained people to be mere spectators reducing
crimes committed by the state. Such dis-
democracy to a mere tormality. The elected similar treatment for similar crimes shows PERFORMING ARTS,
representatives represent not the people but the utter lack of interest of the state to
RELIGION,
arbitrariness and despotism. maintain and protect the human rights of the
The statedid not consider its responsibility people of this country. A law and order PHILOSOPHY,
to realise equality in the spheres not covered approach completely supersedes the consti-
by state action. It is in this area that other tutional limitations as also the obligations ENVIRONMENT etc.
NGOs are operating quite etfectively and so under the international covenants. We arc
long as they do not hold out a threat to the bound by Resolution 1989/65 of May 24,
please writevi sit:
social order they will be allowed to function. 1989 which recommended that the principles Manohar Publishers & Distributors
The whole question of educating people on the Effective Prevention and Investiga- 2/6, Ansari Road, Daryaganj,
would arise in spheres not covered by state New Delhi - 1 10 002
tion of Extra Legal, Arbitrary and Summary
action. In the other areas human rights Executions annexed to the Resolution be
Tel.: 326 2796, 327 5162
Fax: 326 5162
education has to address itself to the state. taken into account and respected by govern-

Economic and Political Weekly March 23, 1996 707

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