PIL in apex court seeks release of Indian sailors held by pirates since 2010

An advocate has approached the Supreme Court seeking directives to the Union government to frame “effective” anti-piracy guidelines and to take immediate steps for ensuring release of Indian sailors held captive by Somali pirates since 2010.

The public interest litigation (PIL) contended that the present system to respond to piracy related incidents was totally “unsatisfactory, unethical and unconstitutional”.

Besides, being in total infringement of the principles laid down in Article 21 of the Constitution, the system showed “lack of criteria” in dealing with such situations, the petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal said.

The petition cited several instances including the one in which 6 Indian seamen have been held hostage since March, 2010. A band of pirates took hostage of 22 crew members on March 2 after capturing a chemical tanker “Royal Grace” and took it towards the coast of Somalia.

Out of the 22 crew members, 17 are Indian citizens and not a single hostage has been released.

Again in March 29, another group hijacked a cargo ship in the international waters of East Africa and took hostage of 24 crew members, which included 6 Indians, and sailed the ship to the Somali Coast and demanded a huge ransom for their release.  

“The lives of the people at sea cannot be put at risk in this manner and it is the fundamental, constitutional and a very basic duty of the respondents to protect the life and liberty of the citizens of India within as well as outside India and the violation of the same infringes on Article 19, 21 and other provisions of the Constitution,” the petition said.

The government has failed to implement a number of laws on the sea viz Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act 1849, Indian Penal Code Act, Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platform on Continental Shelf Act 2002, United Nation Conventions on the Law of the Sea etc, which amounted to infringement of Article 14 (equality) of the Constitution, the petition added.