Fact Check: Did the Supreme Court give permission for the army to fire on stone pelters? Read the reality
Siddharth Urmil 
Claim
A viral image claims that the Supreme Court has said, “There will be no FIR even if stones are thrown at the army, and they are shot directly.”
The post suggests that the Supreme Court has given a free hand to armed forces or police to take action against the stone pelters.
Fact Check
To verify the claim, the DFRAC did a keyword search. No news item led to this query. The Supreme Court of India has not given such order.
In the past, there have been incidents recorded in the media about the Armed forces getting a concession. A news report by India Today, dated 6 March 2018, states how the Supreme Court’s bench headed by the then-Chief Justice of India put on hold all actions against Major Aditya Kumar. An FIR was lodged against Major Kumar in connection to the death of two stone pelters in Shopian. CJI Deepak Misra headed the bench and questioned the then-Jammu and Kashmir government on how they could treat an Armed officer like a criminal.
Further, the report states that the Supreme Court agreed to examine the validity of the J&K government’s decision to withdraw cases against 9,730 people involved in stone-pelting cases from 2008 to 2017. It was hinted that such withdrawal of cases could be quashed if found bad in law.
Similarly, an article in Newslaundry from 31 August 2018, states about the plight of Indian Armed forces officials. A petition on behalf of the armed forces focuses on the alleged dilution of the AFSPA without any specific amendment to that effect.
Additionally, the petitions in this case recognize the fact that the AFSPA doesn’t provide absolute immunity from prosecution. The petitioners sought the filing of the FIR and the investigation began only after the necessary sanction from the central government. They want clarity concerning Section 6 (Section 7 in J&K AFSPA) of the AFSPA. They claim the soldiers act in good faith, based on the orders of the government and their superiors, those who file cases against them are according to sympathizers of terrorists.
We also searched on the official website of the Supreme Court to get information about all the recent decisions given by the court. But here also we did not find any information related to the viral claim.
Conclusion
Thus, from the fact check, it is evident that the claim is misleading. There is no news of such impunity given to the army or soldiers. Furthermore, no such verdict has been given by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had put an interim stay on the FIR registered against Major Aditya Kumar in the Sopiya firing case of 2018. No other incident has been reported recently.
Megha Bajaj