{"id":345149,"date":"2025-08-26T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T07:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=345149"},"modified":"2025-08-26T13:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T07:30:03","slug":"salwa-judum-case-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/salwa-judum-case-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Salwa Judum Case (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; A group of former judges and senior lawyers condemned the Union Home Minister for \u201cmisinterpreting\u201d the Supreme Court\u2019s 2011 Salwa Judum judgment. The Minister said that if Justice B. Sudershan Reddy (retd), the Opposition\u2019s Vice-Presidential candidate, had not delivered the ruling, \u201cNaxalism would have ended by 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>About Salwa Judum Case (2011)<\/h2>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: solid; background-color: #fff7f7;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<p data-start=\"238\" data-end=\"254\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"257\" data-end=\"332\">In the 2000s,<em> Chhattisgarh became the epicentre of Maoist insurgency<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"335\" data-end=\"458\">To counter this, the state government launched Salwa Judum (meaning \u201cpeace march\u201d in Gondi) in 2005, as a state-sponsored vigilante movement.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"461\" data-end=\"579\">Under this initiative, <em>tribal youth were recruited as Special Police Officers (SPOs),<\/em> some as young as 18 years. They were given firearms, paid a small honorarium, and deployed as <em>guides, informants, and fighters<\/em> alongside state forces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"736\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>About the Petition<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"739\" data-end=\"871\">In 2007,<em> Nandini Sundar (sociologist), Ramachandra Guha (historian)<\/em>, and others filed a petition before the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"874\" data-end=\"958\">They challenged the constitutionality of <strong data-start=\"915\" data-end=\"930\">Salwa Judum<\/strong> on the following grounds:\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"963\" data-end=\"1063\">Violation of <em>Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 21 (right to life with dignity).<\/em><\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1068\" data-end=\"1151\">Widespread human rights abuses, including displacement of tribal communities.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1156\" data-end=\"1213\">Blurring of lines between civilians and combatants.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1218\" data-end=\"1323\">Exploitation of vulnerable youth, exposing them to extreme violence without training or protection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"1330\" data-end=\"1366\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Defence of the State and Union<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"1369\" data-end=\"1459\">Both the Union Government and the Chhattisgarh Government defended the practice.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1462\" data-end=\"1481\">They argued that:\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"1462\" data-end=\"1481\">They argued that SPO recruitment was voluntary, mostly included victims of Maoist violence, and drew on their local knowledge.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1462\" data-end=\"1481\">The scheme provided livelihoods in remote areas, and SPOs were said to be effective in protecting camps and resisting Maoist attacks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 data-start=\"1840\" data-end=\"1879\">About the Supreme Court Judgment (2011)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A Bench headed by <em>Justice B. Sudershan Reddy<\/em> delivered the judgment.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1959\" data-end=\"2027\">The Court declared Salwa Judum unconstitutional and held that:\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"2032\" data-end=\"2156\">Deploying <em>ill-trained, barely literate tribal youth<\/em> in counterinsurgency was <em>discriminatory<\/em> (violated Article 14).<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2161\" data-end=\"2250\">Exposing them to <em>life-threatening risks without safeguards<\/em> violated <em>Article 21.<\/em><\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2255\" data-end=\"2361\">Arming civilians blurred the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, escalating violence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong data-start=\"2363\" data-end=\"2384\">Court Directions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"2390\" data-end=\"2432\">Immediate <em>disbanding of Salwa Judum.<\/em><\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2436\" data-end=\"2487\">SPOs should <em>not be used<\/em> in counterinsurgency.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2491\" data-end=\"2588\">Only <em>properly trained police and paramilitary forces<\/em> should conduct anti-Maoist operations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News&#8211; A group of former judges and senior lawyers condemned the Union Home Minister for \u201cmisinterpreting\u201d the Supreme Court\u2019s 2011 Salwa Judum judgment. The Minister said that if Justice B. Sudershan Reddy (retd), the Opposition\u2019s Vice-Presidential candidate, had not delivered the ruling, \u201cNaxalism would have ended by 2020.\u201d About Salwa Judum Case (2011) Background In&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/salwa-judum-case-2011\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Salwa Judum Case (2011)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,12056],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-345149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}