SC rejects plea seeking probe into Army's role in action against LTTE

New Delhi: A plea seeking probe by a Special Investigative Team into the alleged role of Indian Army in Sri Lankan government’s 2008-2009 operation against LTTE was today declined by the Supreme Court which said the issue was beyond its domain and had “political shades”.

“There are issues which are absolutely beyond the domain of the court and this is one of them,” a bench of justices R M Lodha and Kurian Joseph said.

The bench asked the petitioner, advocate V Ram Sankar, to approach the competent authorities on the issue and said that courts cannot go into such issues.

“This is not a matter of judicial review. Absolutely not. How such an issue can be gone into?” the bench said and asked the petitioner, who was seeking a court monitored SIT probe.

“Court is not equipped to go into the issues which have different ramifications and political shades,” the apex court said.

Declining to entertain the plea, the bench said, “This is not a fit case for judicial review.” Realising that the bench was inclined to dismiss the petition, Sankar withdrew it.

The petition alleged that there has been a loss of life of 40,000 Tamilian and other innocent people in the conflict.

The petitioner claimed that he had gone to Sri Lanka and was told by several alleged victims about the participation of Indian Army in the operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

PTI