JKHC rejects Army pleas in Pathribal fake gunfight case

Srinagar, July 10 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today rejected Army pleas in the Pathribal fake encounter case and held as maintainable a lower court's order in this regard.

The Army had filed two appeals in the High Court, challenging a lower court's order directing it to hold court martial proceedings against the accused personnel or let the civil court try them.

The Army, through the appeals, had sought a stay on the November 30 order of Additional District and Sessions Judge Gousia un Nisa Jeelani and also directions to the CBI to withdraw its charge-sheet against the five personnel.

Five senior Army personnel have been charged with killing five innocent civilians in a fake encounter at Pathribal in Anantnag district of south Kashmir on March 25, 2000.

Defence counsel Anil Bhan said the Army would not be able to initiate court martial proceedings against the five personnel without prior sanction for prosecution from the Centre.

He also said that CBI had no jurisdiction to file a charge-sheet against the Army personnel in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) and neither had the agency sought prior permission from the Union Home Ministry for prosecution of the accused.

Mr Bhan urged the High Court to dismiss the lower court's November 30 order as ''illegal''.

In his order, Justice Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain said a Chief Judicial Magistrate had to transfer a charge-sheet in a murder case to a sessions court. A sessions court was empowered to take a legal action on the charge-sheet, he added.

Justice Hussain said the Army could file its objections to the charge-sheet in the sessions court. However, he said the Army's objections to the CBI charge-sheet were ''illegal''.

On November 30, the Additional District and Sessions Judge had dismissed the revision petition filed by the Army.

The judge had directed the five Army personnel -- Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt Col (then Major) Bijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan of 7 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) -- to appear before the court of CJM, Srinagar.

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