The Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Armed Police Force Act, 2011 holding that the legislation did not amount to contempt of court. The decision arose from a 2007 contempt petition which was filed before the court challenging the 2011 Act as being contempt of a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that outlawed the Salwa Judum militia. In addition to that, the Apex Court also disposed of two writ petitions saying that the prayers made in the petitions were addressed in the same 2011 judgment of the court.
Refusing to strike down the law, a bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma observed that mere enactment of a law by the state in exercise of its legislative power cannot be challenged as contempt. “Any law made by the Parliament or a State legislature cannot be held to be an act of contempt of a Court, including this Court, for simply making the law…The passing of an enactment subsequent to the order of this Court by the legislature of the State of Chhattisgarh cannot, in our view, be said to be an act of contempt of the order passed by this Court,” the court said. The bench noted the Act did not override its 2011 ruling that directed the state to desist from appointing local tribal people as Special Police Officers (SPOs) in anti-Naxal operations.
The petitioners, popular naxal-sympathiser Nandini Sundar, ‘historian’ Ramachandra Guha and former bureaucrat EAS Sarma argued before the court that the 2011 Act gave legislative backing to the arrangement of the state of appointing SPOs which was struck down by the court in its 2011 judgment.
Holding that challenging the 2011 enactment as an act of contempt was not legally appropriate, the top court advised the petitioners to mount an appropriate legal challenge to question the validity of the law. “…interpretative power of a constitutional court does not contemplate a situation of declaring exercise of legislative functions and passing of an enactment as an instance of a contempt of a court,” the court explained.
Supreme Court judgment that outlawed the Salwa Judum
In July 2011, the Supreme Court passed a judgment in the case of Nandini Sundar v State of Chhattisgarh, prohibiting the state from appointing local tribal youth as SPOs in counter-insurgency operations. Ordering disbanding of local civil militia like Salwa Judum and Koya Commandos, the apex court directed the withdrawal of firearms issued to SPOs, prosecution of those responsible for criminal acts committed under the aegis of Salwa Judum, and investigation by the NHRC and the CBI into human rights violations in Chhattisgarh.
The Salwa Judum was a civil militia, comprising local tribal youth, that emerged in 2005 as a grassroots movement against Naxalism in Chhattisgarh. The movement, which aimed to protect local villages and communities from Naxal attacks, later gained state. The state govrnment provided arms and training to the members of the group to stregthen their fight against Naxalism. However, in 2011, the Supreme Court banned Salwa Judum and other similar groups terming their activities as unconstitutional.
What is the 2011 Act?
After the Supreme Court ruling, the Chhattisgarh government enacted the Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Armed Police Force Act, 2011, which empowered the state government to establish as auxiliary force at the state level to assist the the security forces in maintaining public order, preventing and combating Naxalite violence, and combating insurgency. A three-member committee selects recruits the members of the auxiliary force among the locals who are familiar with the topography and the local languages and dialects.
The contempt petition claimed that the Act legitimised the state’s action of appointing local tibals as civilian combatants in anti-naxal operations and thus amounted to the contempt of the Supreme Court ruling that banned SPOs. The petition claimed that the legislation was an attempt to nullify the Supreme Court ruling and thus amounted to wilful disobedience.
Modi government’s resolve to uproot naxalism
Soon after coming into power in 2014, the Modi government expressed zero tolerance policy towards Naxalism and its resolve to uproot Naxal terrorism from the country. For achieving this objective, the government adopted a multi-pronged strategy which includes aggressive military operations to eliminate Naxal terrorism as well as development efforts to integrate the Left-wing extremism (LWE) affected areas and people into the mainstream as per the National Policy and Action Plan launched in 2015.
However, the reintegration of Naxalism-affected people is not possible without first eliminating Naxal terrorism. Therefore, the government adopted an aggressive military approach to counter Naxal terrorism which entered its last phase under Operation Kagar which was launched in January 2024 to eradicate Naxalism in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra (Gadchiroli), Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana as well as installing new camps as part of the military offensive by security forces.
Under the operation, around 1 lakh para-military troops, including the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its elite CoBRA units, District Reserve Guards DRG), and state police, equipped with modern technology, have been deployed in the left-wing terrorism affected areas to completely uproot the naxal terrorism from its last remaining strongholds. Since the inception of the operation, the security forces have eliminated over 400 naxal terrorists so far while more than 800 Maoists have surrendered.
In a major success under the operation, the security forces neutralised Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju along with 26 other Naxals last month, dealing a major blow to Naxal terrorism. As a result of the government’ aggressive anti-Naxal policy, the Naxal-affected areas in the country significantly shrank over the last 10 years from 106 districts in 2015 to just 6 districts (Bijapur, Kanker, Narayanpur, and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and Gadhchiroli in Maharashtra).
With the government’s intensified anti-Naxal operations and its depleting cadre strength, Naxal terrorism in the country is facing an inevitable end.
