Police regulations allow the use of pellet guns in “exceptional circumstances”, the Supreme Court said on Thursday, July 30. The apex court’s observations come in the midst of heated debates about the use of pellet guns at the anti-NEET agitations in New Delhi.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana heard a petition filed by Prashant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoor, who suffered injuries allegedly from pellet guns used by Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel during the Sansad Chalo march organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on July 20.
Former Central Information Commissioner and special director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Yashovardhan Azad, is the third petitioner in the case.
During the hearing, Justice Bagchi told advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the petitioners, that police regulations allow the use of pellet guns in exceptional circumstances, Live Law reported.
Advocate Vrinda replied, “There can be rubber, plastic and metallic pellets. These were metallic and recovered from the bodies.”
Justice Bagchi responded that the petition seeking a ban on the use of pellet guns to disperse civilian gatherings will remain vague unless the regulations are challenged.
He added that while the court was not against looking into the use of pellets in a particular incident, the petitioners must show if it was “permissible under a graded approach”. Following this, Vrinda said that she was restricting her request to the use of metallic pellets.
She also said that there was no standing order issued to Delhi Police permitting the use of pellet guns. “If there is such a standing order, the Union may place it on record. I am sure the Union and the Delhi police do not wish to fire pellets on innocent youngsters,” she said.
The bench asked the petitioners to amend the plea and challenge rules which allow the use of pellet guns.
Vrinda also requested the court to pass an order to specifically preserve the ammunition logs related to the incident.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh claimed in the Lok Sabha that no shots were fired, adding that the police had used “utmost restraint” during the July 20 protests.
He was responding to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s accusation that Home Minister Amit Shah had ordered the firing. Claiming that since no firing took place, Singh added that the question of giving orders does not arise. He also said that shooting orders are issued by magistrates and not by any minister.