Pending Inquiry, perpetually!

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Revenue authorities in Andhra Pradesh have been sitting over magisterial inquiries in many districts for over a decade now. This has resulted in piling up of 507 cases between 1998 and 2008. A magisterial inquiry is a statutory requirement in cases related to death of persons in police custody or lock-up as well as incidents of police firing and exchange of fire between police and extremists. Karimnagar district tops the list with over 181 such pending cases, mostly related to exchange of fire between police and extremists. Warangal, another naxalite-affected district, comes next with 65 pending cases followed by Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and West Godavari 33 each. The Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission guidelines clearly stipulate that magisterial inquiries have to be completed within four months but revenue authorities seem to drag their feet in conducting the inquiries in time. Though the state government has been repeatedly directing the respective district Collectors to step up the inquiries and complete them soon by according priority, the cases seem to head nowhere. Of the 507 magisterial inquiries pending, 54 cases are registered by the NHRC and 12 by the AP State Human Rights Commission. "These inquiry reports are crucial to establish whether an officer is guilty of wrongdoing or whether any person died, in custody, of natural reasons. The delay in completion of inquiry may eventually deny justice to the affected party," a senior official pointed out. In Guntur district, for example, five cases of custodial\lock-up death were reported way back in 1998 but so far the magisterial inquiry reports into these incidents have not been submitted. Two more cases of same nature in 1997 and one in 1999 in Guntur district have been pending inquiry. Karimnagar district, which once used to be a hotbed of naxalite activity, had seen 75 incidents of police firing or exchange of fire with extremists in 1998, 30 in 1999 and 25 in 2000. After a lull for six years, 15 incidents were reported in 2007 and five so far this year. In all these cases, the magisterial inquiries have not been completed, official sources said. Since this is a "very important issue" concerning human rights, the state government is worried about the fallout of non-compliance of Supreme Court and NHRC orders. Now, the government has issued fresh directions to the district Collectors of Karimnagar and Warangal, where the pendency is very high, to pay personal attention and complete the magisterial inquiries at the earliest so as to avoid "adverse comments by NHRC, SHRC, courts and also the media."