The Chhattisgarh government refuted allegations in the Supreme Court on Thursday that it had appointed minors as special police officers or had armed the civilians in its fight against Naxals.
"We deny all these allegations," senior counsel K K Venugopal and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the state government, said before a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.
The bench made it clear that the appointment of SPOs have to be done in accordance with law under the Indian Police Act or Chhattisgarh Police Act.
The court was hearing a PIL on which a National Human Rights Commission probe was ordered into the allegations by some academicians and social activists that the state government was supporting the 'Salwa Judum' (people's movement) to combat Naxalism.
The Salwa Judum has repeatedly faced allegations of human rights violations.
The Chhatisgarh government said the NHRC report had clearly stated that minors were not being appointed as SPOs and the petitioners are "wrongly painting" a grim picture by levelling various allegations.
"A tremendous amount of psychological warfare is going on," Venugopal told the bench, also comprising Justices S H Kapadia and Aftab Alam.
He mentioned the statement made by Home Minister P Chidambaram after the recent Maoist attack in a police camp in West Bengal in which 24 jawans were killed.
He told the court that Chidamabaram said there was no voice from the pro-Naxal intellectuals.
The senior advocate said Naxalism was not restricted to Chhattisgarh, but its tentacles have spread to other states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand.
Venuopal was supported by Rohatgi, who said, "The petitioners are the sympathisers of Naxalites."
The submissions by the Chhattisgarh government were made after senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the petitioners, made various allegations including that Naxalism has increased because of the support rendered by the administration to the Salwa Judum.
"Both Naxalism and Salwa Judum are horrible," Desai said adding that due to their presence tribals are being treated as "aliens" in their own land.
Another senior advocate Rajender Sachar, appearing for the petitioners, said if one goes by the report of the People's Union of Civil Liberties, there are more serious charges of atrocities against tribals.
While allegations and counter allegations were being made, the bench adjourned the matter for four weeks asking the state government to file a status report on compliance of the NHRC recommendation within that period.
The bench said by way of affidavit, the Chhattisgarh government would inform as to how many schools, ashrams, aganwadis have been vacated which were used for stationing the police and paramilitary forces.
Further, the status report has to clearly state that how many first information reports have been registered on the issue of human rights violation by Salwa Judum in which innocent people were killed.
The affidavit will also have to spell out the steps taken for prosecuting those who have been chargsheeted, the bench said.
It asked both the state government and petitioners to come out with the rehabilitation plan for the displaced tribals and for the construction of houses, schools and hospitals in the Naxal-hit areas.
The litigation, filed by sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramchandra Guha, former bureaucrat E A S Sarma and others had sought direction to the state government to refrain from allegedly supporting and encouraging the Salwa Judum.
They had alleged that the conditions in Judum camps were bad and people involved in the movement should be allowed to go back to forests during the sowing season.
Earlier last year, the action taken report was filed by the Chhattisgarh government on the recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission in its report.
The NHRC had probed the alleged human rights violation by Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh and had pointed to incidents of burning and killing on which FIRs were not registered and cases of high-handedness of the Special Police Officers, civilians armed with weapons to fight Naxals.
The Chhattisgarh government has maintained that "Salwa Judum is dying out".
The NHRC had inquired into alleged human rights violations by activists of Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh even as the Centre had approved the state government's stand.
Its report had said that there were some instances of violence, which required a probe by an independent agency.
The Centre has maintained that the ground situation was alarming in Naxal-hit areas and political considerations have to be kept at bay to fight Naxalism.
