Manipur encounters: Plea for recusal of judges rejected by Supreme Court

New Delhi, Nov 12: The Supreme Court has rejected a plea filed by 300 Army officials, who sought that the Bench recuse itself from hearing the Manipur extra judicial killings case.

A Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Justice U U Lalit are hearing the case. A plea was filed seeking the Bench to recuse itself from hearing the case. The petitioner said that it was prejudicial to the probe involving them.

The Centre had supported the plea and said that the Armed Forces face a difficult situation in areas such as Manipur. They have to adopt various methods to deal with the situation at hand, the Centre represented by Attorney General, K K Venugopal had said. He also said that the remarks by the Bench that these security personnel were murderers had completely shaken the morale of both the police and the Armed Forces.

The court has been hearing the main case which was a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur. On July 14 2017, the SC had set up a Special Investigation Team comprising CBI officers and ordered the registration of FIRs.