The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the proceedings against five Army officials including the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 7 Rastriya Rifles, who were allegedly booked for killing five innocent persons as terrorists seven years ago.

A bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal ordered for the stay of the proceedings in the subordinate court at Srinagar; directed the Jammu and Kashmir government and the CBI to file their replies to the petition filed by the Army.

Additional Solicitor General Vikash Singh appearing for the Army argued that the trial court chargesheeted five army officials – GOC Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan — without seeking mandatory sanction from the government.

“The Magistrate has no power to sift and weigh the evidence recorded by the investigating agency to see whether the act alleged was done by the accused while acting or purporting to act in discharge of his official duty,” said the petition seeking quashing of the Jammu and Kashmir high court.

No authority
The trial court did not have the authority to proceed without obtaining sanction from the government to prosecute the Army officials, said Singh during the arguments.

The CBI booked them along with six others on charges of killing five innocent people, who were killed in a “fake encounter” branding them as the terrorists involved in the killing of 35 Sikhs at Chhitisigh Pora in Jammu and Kashmir days before the visit of US President Bill Clinton to India on March 20, 2000.

After the arrest of a militant Mohd Yaqoob Wagey, the J&K Police and the Army carried out a joint operation in which five people were killed.

But when the public insists that those killed were innocent civilians, the government instituted a CBI probe. The CBI has chargesheeted the Army and police personnel for the deaths of five people.