NEW DELHI, March 17:  Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to demarcate the role of the amicus curiae in the alleged fake encounters in Manipur.

Mehta submitted before a bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana that the role and ambit of assistance by an amicus needs to be decided by the court.

“They (amicus) cannot be running the government,” he submitted before the bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose. Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy is the amicus curiae in the matter.

Meanwhile, the top court also allowed discharge of Senior Superintendent of Police Mahesh Bhardwaj from the probe into the alleged fake encounters, as he has been promoted as DIG in his parent AGMU cadre. The top court allowed the plea filed by the NHRC seeking release of its senior officer and directed the government to expeditiously provide a suitable officer to the rights panel.

During the hearing, the bench noted that on the previous hearing, the amicus curiae had to say something. Mehta contended that the amicus curiae have no role in deciding what the CBI should do, and its role is limited in assisting the court on law. He insisted that this is a matter where soldiers are protecting our borders and facing cases.

However, the bench told Mehta that it knows the scope of role of an amicus.

“Let us not get into all that. Tell us who you will replace the officer with,” said the top court. Mehta then said it he will submit a list in the matter.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing an NGO, had submitted that the new officer must come immediately as there is a backlog of 655 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

The top court is hearing a plea seeking investigation into 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur. In July 2017, it had constituted an SIT and ordered probe into many cases. Two officers of the NHRC in July 2018, including Bhardwaj, were made members of the SIT.

IANS