Supreme Court notice to Centre on petition seeking repatriation of POWs
New Delhi, April 13
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre on the petition of an Army officer’s wife seeking repatriation of her husband and other Army officers believed to be under illegal detention as prisoners of war (POWs) in Pakistan since the 1971 war.
A Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to respond in three weeks to the plea of Jasbir Kaur, wife of Major Kanwaljit Singh who is among the POWs, after her counsel Namit Saxena contended that very little had been done on the issue in the last 50 years. She wanted the top court to direct the government to approach the International Court of Justice against Pakistan for a coercive and binding judicial remedy for the release of all Indian POWs held under the “torturous custody of Pakistan in violation of the Geneva Convention for Treatment of Prisoners of War”.
Unending wait for kin
- As per information, 54 prisoners of 1971 war are believed to be languishing in Pak jails
- Not even one of these POWs released in past 5 decades
- The SC has sought the Centre’s response in three weeks
Kaur urged the court to further direct the Centre to produce the court of inquiry proceedings, if held under the mandatory provisions of Army Rules, into the circumstances leading to the capture, torture and murder of Captain Saurabh Kalia by Pakistan during the Kargil war.
The Centre should be asked to take initiatives to set up domestic and international mechanisms for effectively enforcing the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, the universal declaration of human rights and the Geneva Convention for treatment of POWs, the petitioner submitted.
The PIL referred to four different cases pending before the top court, including the one of martyr Saurabh Kalia who was murdered during the Kargil war along with five other soldiers. It said that not even one of the 54 POWs has been released despite the existence of a “specific bilateral agreement in force between the respondent Union of India with the detaining power of Government of Pakistan”.
