Oct. 27: The Supreme Court today directed the Bengal government to pay compensation to all those affected in the March 14 police firing at Nandigram without going into whether the injury occurred while attacking the uniformed personnel.
The Bengal government was so far reluctant to pay compensation to those it claims were involved in attacks on police officers in the land flare-up that changed the face of Bengal politics. Fourteen persons were killed in the violence on March 14, 2007, turning what was till then a local protest into a national issue.
Calcutta High Court had directed the state to pay Rs 5 lakh to the relatives of each of the dead, Rs 1 lakh each to the injured and Rs 2 lakh each to victims of rape.
The petitioners had said 162 people were injured and four women had been raped. But the state government contested the number of the injured and said it could not establish rape. The state also took the stand that the victims should produce documents and proof that they were injured by the police.
However, today’s directive made it clear that the state government could not make a distinction among the injured. The order will cover those listed by the petitioners as injured and raped.
State advocate-general Balai Ray said in Calcutta: “The government never said it would not carry out the court order and pay the compensation. The dispute was always over whether all those claiming to be injured had sustained their injuries because of police action. However, we will abide by the Supreme Court’s order.”
The court directive formalises an observation it made on December 13, 2007, while rejecting the state government’s contention.
“We have paid compensation to all those people whose roles during the incident were not disputed,” state counsel K.K. Venugopal told the Supreme Court today, seeking a stay on further payments.
But a two-judge bench, hearing the state’s challenge to the high court order directing a CBI probe into the firing, shot it down. “That we will not stay,” Justice R.V. Raveendran said, when Venugopal tried to suggest that those involved in attacks on the police should not get any compensation.
“Compensation has not been given to those who were trying to throw bombs at the police and had their hands blown off,” Venugopal contended.
Justice Raveendran rejected his plea. “Let us not make any such distinction. If anybody is to be paid, he should be paid without going into its legality...” the judge said. “This is a question of people suffering; they will have to be paid.”
The court directed the petitioners in the case, such as the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and the High Court Bar Association, to give a list of those yet to be compensated to the state so that it could “process and pay without delay”.
The state government, which had challenged the high court order that held the firing “unconstitutional”, blamed armed “Maoists” for creating a situation that forced the police to open fire. APDR lawyer Kalyan Bandyopadhyay said the state had not taken this stand earlier, accusing it of using “Maoists” to “divert” attention.
The state urged the court to direct any agency but the CBI to probe the incident. The CBI functions “under the central government” whereas “we are a political party in Opposition”, Venugopal said.
CBI ticked off
The CBI today refused to hand over a copy of the probe report to the state. The agency said the accused (policemen) were entitled to a copy of the charges against them only after a chargsheet was filed in a court and not during investigations.
The court derided the CBI, saying “don’t treat the state government as the accused” but adjourned the case till December 2.
