Kathmandu, December 11

The Supreme Court has directed the government to form a new body to investigate allegations of extra judicial killings.

The apex court’s order was passed by a division bench of justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Kumar Regmi acting on a public interest litigation filed by Advocate Sunil Ranjan Singh and others against the government. Justice Khatiwada ordered the government to form an independent body not involving any officer of Nepal Police to investigate allegations of extra judicial killings.

Justice Khatiwada said efforts to bring those responsible for extra judicial killings to book had been feeble, necessitating the formation of an independent body to investigate such cases.

If any case of extra judicial killing is filed before the formation of an independent investigation body, the government should ensure that Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police investigate it until a new independent investigation body is formed, he added.

Stating that the National Human Rights Commission has not implemented the legal provision of blacklisting human rights violators, the Supreme Court asked the rights body to blacklist human rights violators immediately.

The apex court asked Nepal Police to review its policies on use of force and make them human rights friendly.

The petitioners had quoted Democratic Freedom and Human Rights Institute report that said 130 people were killed using extra judicial means by security forces between 1 January 2008 and 1 January 2011.

They claimed that none of the security personnel were even injured during these killings.

The home ministry’s statement that sporadic incidents during the process of maintaining law and order should not be termed extra judicial killings was termed irresponsible by the SC.

It said showing insensitivity towards victims, distorting facts, and showing irrational sensitivi￾ty towards guilty security personnel with an intention to block judicial investigation into cases of extra judicial killings would be against the constitution and law.

It added that written reply furnished by the Office of the Attorney General did not indicate that it fulfilled its obligation to notify victims’ kin about probes into allegations of extra judicial killings and the status of such cases.

The court said police didn’t even register FIR in some cases of alleged extra judicial killings, and even after the court ordered police to investigate those cases, police continued to ignore the

court order.

The apex court cited the for￾mation of special units to investigate cases of extra judicial kill￾ings in India. Such units are not deemed against the constitution and laws, added the SC. It pointed out that even Nepal Police had a separate Narcotics

Control Bureau to investigate drug abuse cases.

Meanwhile, Justice Regmi wrote a dissenting note saying the government should form a special investigation team in consultation with the Office of

the Attorney General or get allegations of extra judicial killings investigated immediately by the

Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police as per Section 12 of penal code.

The apex court had passed the order last year, but released it's full text only recently.