Manipur violence: Can’t take away state’s job in upholding law and order, Indian SC says

The Indian Supreme Court on Monday said that it cannot usurp the responsibilities of the state of the government and uphold law and order in the violence-hit Manipur state after a plea sought the court’s intervention.

The remarks came during the Supreme Court's hearing of the matter after two petitions were filed.

The first plea was filed by the Manipur Tribal Forum Delhi seeking the protection of the Kuki tribe by the Indian Army.

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The second petition was filed by the Chairman of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, Dinganglung Gangmei, challenging the direction of the Manipur High Court to consider the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list, which provides for reservation in educational institutes and jobs.

It was this issue of adding the Meitei community to the ST list that triggered the riots in the state.

‘State-sponsored violence’

The hearing witnessed a brief heated moment after the lawyer of one of the petitioners, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, alleged that the unrest in Manipur is "state-sponsored violence".

This invited a sharp retort from Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud who said, "We do not want this platform to be used for further escalation of violence in the state."

While responding to a plea asking for SC’s intervention to stop the violence, the two-judge bench said, “We can only monitor the steps being taken by the state and pass certain orders if there are additional measures that can be taken. But we can't run the security apparatus."

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Status report

In the last hearing, the court sought the latest status report from the Manipur government regarding the current status of the violent clashes between communities that erupted in May this year.

While submitting the updated status report on Monday, government’s counsel Tushar Mehta said, “We, on this side, are for the public...The matter may be taken up by the petitioner with the utmost sensitivity because any misinformation may aggravate the situation in the State. Things are returning to normalcy after a lot of efforts from the central and state government.”

After observing the report, CJI Chandrachud asked Gonsalves, who is representing the Manipur Tribal Forum, to “have a look at the status report”.

“Come here with concrete suggestions, we will give them to the SG (Mehta), and have them consider the same. Formulate them by tomorrow."

The Manipur government submitted the latest status report on the situation while the hearing on the same will resume on Tuesday.

The court will hear the matter next tomorrow.

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