Another ‘encounter’ in Assam, why a case in Supreme Court remains stuck

Days ago, the prime suspect in the killing of five people at a Guwahati hotel was shot dead in an “encounter” with police. As fresh questions were raised over the number of “encounters” by the Assam Police, former state DGP and current CRPF Director General G P Singh posted a tweet, saying: “Relevance of third law remains undiminished in Assam. Keep it up @assampolice.” The mention of ‘third law’ was read as a reference to Newton’s Third Law of Motion, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

In May 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to probe alleged fake encounters in the state. As the number of reported “encounters” continues, the matter seems to have fallen through the cracks.

The primary reason is vacant positions at the AHRC, according to several officials familiar with the matter.

It was on a petition filed by advocate Arif Jwadder alleging 171 fake police encounters in Assam between May 2021 and August 2022, with Kokrajhar district leading the list at 18, that the Supreme Court in May 2025 directed the AHRC to conduct an inquiry into them.  Fifty-six people were killed in these “encounters” and 145 injured.

While refusing to order “omnibus judicial directions”, the Court said the “victims” of the alleged fake encounters and their family members should be given “a fair and meaningful opportunity to participate in the proceedings”. “We direct the AHRC to issue a public notice inviting all individuals who claim to be aggrieved… to come forward and furnish relevant information or evidence,” it said, adding that a public notice be published in at least one national English daily and one prominent vernacular newspaper in Assam to make people aware of this.

The notice should also include contact details of officers concerned for the victims or their families to access free legal aid, the order read.

Jwadder told The Indian Express that even these public notices had not been published over the past year.  “I had sought information from AHRC and, according to the information provided, only the preliminary steps were taken. The Commission does not have the requisite staff and is not investigating any further cases,” he said.

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Multiple officials were approached across departments, but no one agreed to speak on record. One senior official of the Assam State Legal Services Authority said there were no records of anyone approaching for victim compensation. A senior official of the AHRC said its full bench was not functional currently, with only one member out of the designated three.

While the tenure of Santanu Bharali, the non-judicial member of the Commission, ended in April this year, Chairperson Justice Arup Kumar Goswami’s tenure ended in August, officials said.

“Two positions are vacant. Hence, it is very difficult to make a decision right now,” the official said, adding that it was up to the state government led by the BJP to take a call on when the positions will be filled.

A senior government official said that the “process of filling the vacancies” was on, but there was no clarity on “when they will be filled”.

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Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has defended the state police’s actions, and in a response to questions about the spurt in incidents of firing at alleged criminals in 2021, said that “this should be a pattern” if someone was “trying to flee”.

“If someone snatches police arms and tries to flee, and on top of that he is a rapist, police cannot shoot him in the chest, but shooting at the leg is the law,” he said, addressing a conference called ‘Redefining Policing Standards in Assam’.