The exasperation of the Supreme Court over the way the Uttar Pradesh government has been tackling the Lakhimpur Kheri killings is apparent in its loud thinking. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana plans to entrust the task of monitoring the investigation to a former judge of another high court. The court is upset over the lackadaisical manner in which the state has been dealing with the case and its own inability to bring the investigation back on track. What is happening is a reflection of the limitations under the division of powers between the executive and the judiciary.
True, the Supreme Court is, as the name itself suggests, the supreme judicial institution. However, it can only issue orders which have to be implemented by the executive. In the instant case, it is local police who have to investigate the case and punish the guilty. There are two main cases, one in which a convoy of vehicles led by the son of a Union Minister, which deliberately ran over a gathering of farmers blocking the road at Lakhimpur Kheri. Five persons, including a journalist, were crushed to death.
In an instant violent reaction, the farmers lynched three of the BJP workers to death. While one was a deliberate attempt to overawe the farmers and “teach them a lesson”, the other was a spontaneous, though unacceptable, reaction to the attack. The minister’s son was present in the convoy and he allegedly wielded a gun. Yet, police refused to arrest him initially. It was only after the Supreme Court’s intervention that Ashish Mishra was arrested. The attempt is more to protect him than to punish him, though there is forensic evidence that his gun was used, either for self-protection or to scare the mob.
The apex court has fears that the one-man inquiry commission headed by former judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice P K Srivastava, which has been tasked with submitting an inquiry report into the October 3 incident, might not be able to do justice to the task. It is a moot point whether the retired judge of another high court is better equipped to do the job when police and the administrative machinery are controlled by those very persons who want to protect the guilty. A better option would be for the apex court itself to monitor the case on its own.
