Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners in the Manipur encounter cases, objected to the fresh plea and said that it appears to seek a review of the earlier Supreme Court order. The Supreme Court will next month hear a plea by over 350 Army personnel challenging the dilution of protection available to them under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act — or AFSPA — and registration of FIRs against them for carrying out operations in areas such as Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir. The petition came up on Monday before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, which said it has to be heard by a special bench of Justices Lokur and U U Lalit, which is dealing with registration of FIRs against soldiers operating in Manipur in connection with alleged fake encounters. The court will now take up the matter on September 4. On July 14, 2017, the bench of Justices Lokur and Lalit had ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI to probe the alleged fake encounters. Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi agreed that it must be heard by the same bench that is dealing with the Manipur encounters. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners in the Manipur encounter cases, objected to the fresh plea and said that it appears to seek a review of the earlier Supreme Court order. The plea filed by the soldiers, including Col Amit Kumar, claims that they are being “persecuted” and proceeded against for performing duties in disturbed areas. The CBI has already filed chargesheets in three of the Manipur encounter cases it had probed. The petitioners said they are “now facing confusion and countering questions from soldiers under their command, as to whether they are supposed to continue to engage (in) the proxy war and insurgency with their military training, standard operating procedures, operational realities, valour and courage, or act and operate as per the yardsticks of peace-time operations, law and order issues and CrPC”. The protection under AFSPA, the petition stated, “doesn’t give any blanket prohibition or any special right to the soldier for himself, but facilitates his functioning and operations in extraordinary circumstances of proxy war, insurgency, armed hostility, ambushes, covert and overt operations”. The petition wants specific guidelines to protect soldiers for bona fide action so that they not harassed by initiation of criminal proceedings for carrying out their duties “in protection of sovereignty, integrity and dignity of the country”.