The partial rollback of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act

What is the News?

The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced the reduction of “disturbed areas” under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland with effect from April 1,2022. 

This decision was based on the recommendations of a committee that was constituted to study the possibility of withdrawing the AFSPA from areas in Nagaland in the wake of public anger against a botched ambush by an elite unit of the Army that led to the killing of 13 civilians.

What is AFSPA?

The British colonial government had on August 15, 1942, promulgated the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance to suppress the Quit India movement.

After independence, the act was the foundation for the “Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958. This Act was replaced by the AFSPA for wider application. A similar Act specific to Jammu and Kashmir was enacted in 1990.

How is the AFSPA imposed?

Section 3 of the AFSPA empowers the Governor of a State and the administrator of a Union Territory (UT) to declare an area “disturbed” and issue an official notification in The Gazette of India to give the Centre the authority to deploy the “armed forces in aid of the civil power”. 

What is Disturbed Area?

A government considers an area “disturbed” if it perceives a threat to “public peace and tranquillity, by reason of differences or disputes between members of different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities”. 

Once declared “disturbed”, a region has to maintain the status quo for a minimum of three months according to The Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1976.

Powers under AFSPA: The armed forces have the following powers in the disturbed area:

– Arrest and search any premises without a warrant 

– protection from prosecution and legal suits without the Central government’s sanction. 

– Can use force or even open fire after giving due warning if armed forces feel a person is in contravention of the law.

How is the AFSPA Act being viewed?

The AFSPA has often been under the scanner for giving the armed forces personnel the  “license to kill”. 

Rights groups have called the Act as a tool of state for abuse, oppression and discrimination, while the United Nations has often pointed out that it has no place in Indian democracy.

Source: This post is based on the article “The partial rollback of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act” published in The Hindu on 5th April 2022.