Deepak asked: Has the ‘Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance, 1942’ been specifically repealed or not? If yes, please give the details?

Pushpita Das

replies: The Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942 was promulgated by the British on August 15, 1942 to suppress the ‘Quit India’ movement. As the title itself demonstrates, ‘special powers’ were bestowed on ‘certain officers’ of the armed forces under the Ordinance to deal with the ‘emergency’ situation. These ‘special powers’ included the use of force (even to cause death) on any person who fails to halt when challenged by a sentry or appears to damage any property or resist arrest. Most importantly, the Ordinance provided complete immunity to the officers; their acts could not be challenged by anyone in the Court except with the prior approval of the central government. In 1947, the central government had invoked four ordinances – the Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; the Assam Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; the East Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; and the United Provinces Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance – to deal with the internal security situation in the country. In 1948, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1948 was promulgated, which replaced all the four abovementioned ordinanceS. Kalyanaraman The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1948, as a matter of fact, was modeled along the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1948 was repealed in 1957, but only to be resurrected a year later in 1958 because of the deteriorating internal security situation in the ‘unified Assam’ as a result of Naga rebellion.