NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday put a stay order on the Manipur High Court’s order to the state government to submit the recommendation to give protection status as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) to the Meitei community of Manipur after hearing several petitions regarding the matter. This order passed by the High Court triggered widespread violence in the state and the situation remains volatile to date.
“We have to stay the order of the Manipur HC. It is completely factually wrong and we gave time to Justice Muralidharan to remedy his error and he did not..we have to take a strong view against it now,” mentioned the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, in regard to the incident.
The state government of Manipur and the Central government informed the Supreme Court that a status report has been filed regarding the incident and the situation has improved considerably in the state. The government also informed the Court that some issues still exist regarding the breakout of violence and it is important to bring back peace and tranquillity in the state.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the apex court that the intention of the central government is to restore peace in the state as soon as possible. He mentioned that a total number of 315 relief camps have been established and are currently handled by the local police as well as the CAPF. A contingency fund of Rs 3 Crs has also been sanctioned for all the relief measures to be carried out in the state and around 46000 people have received help yet said the Solicitor General.
During a hearing on April 19th regarding a petition filed by the Meitei Tribe Union seeking Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, the Manipur High Court observed that a decision on the issue had so far not taken place due to the negligence of the state government which has till date, not sent a recommendation to the Centre for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST list. The high court ordered the Manipur government to “consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period four weeks” from the date of the order.
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