The Cases That India Forgot

by Chintan Chandrachud

The committee observed that the AFSPA had become ‘a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and highhandedness’.28 It recommended repealing the AFSPA and placing some of its provisions into a different law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission of the central government, chaired by Veerappa Moily, also recommended the repeal of AFSPA in 2007.29 In 2013, the Justice Verma Committee – chaired by the same judge who was on the bench that decided the Naga People’s Movement case – stressed the need to review the continuance of the AFSPA ‘as soon as possible’.30 The same year, the Justice Hegde Commission observed that the AFSPA had ‘little or no effect’ on insurgency in Manipur.31 There was wisdom in this observation – something must have been amiss when ‘disturbed area’ notifications remained in place in the same location for decades.