New Delhi Apr 14 :- The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and Army Chief on a plea seeking directions for repatriating Indian soldiers held as Prisoners of War (PoWs) in Pakistan.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant issued the notice on the petition filed by Delhi resident Jasbir Kaur, wife of Shaurya Chakra winner Major Kanwaljit Singh, and Bir Bahadur Singh, a former Army Havildar and currently secretary general of Voice of Ex Servicemen Society.
Major Kanwaljit Singh was taken PoW by Pakistan after being injured at Ferozepur during the 1971 war.
The plea also urged the court to direct the respondents “to procure from the International Red Cross, the list of PoWs, who were scheduled to be repatriated by Pakistan in years succeeding the 1971 war but (were) ultimately not repatriated as scheduled in the third train of PoWs”.
It also wanted the court to direct all respondents “to approach the International Court of Justice against Pakistan with appropriate judicial remedies, which are coercive and binding in nature for release of all the Indian PoWs held under the torturous custody of Pakistan in violation of the Geneva Convention for Treatment of Prisoners of War”.
The petition referred to the Gujarat High Court order of December 23, 2011 on the subject and said it has the names of 54 of these PoWs.
The plea, filed through Advocate Namit Saxena, also referred to the killing of Captain Saurabh Kalia and five other Indian soldiers at the instance of the Pakistan Army during the Kargil war. It prayed to the court to direct the government and Army Chief to “produce the court of inquiry proceedings held if any under the mandatory provisions of Army Rules…into the circumstances under which the frugal patrol of Captain Saurabh Kalia and five Sepoys of 4 JAT Regiment, was ordered to Bajrang Post in May 1999 during the Kargil war, taken Prisoners of War, tortured inhumanly and murdered in cold blood…”.
It said one Naik Gule Khandan of Pakistan Army had confessed in a public felicitation function held in Pakistan – and aired on YouTube – about “hunting down Captain Kalia’s patrol”. It requested the court to direct the respondents to approach the International Court of Justice against Pakistan.
