Manipur Violence: SC orders Manipur DGP to personally present in Court on August 7, asking “If law and order machinery cannot protect people what happens to citizens?”

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice JB Pardiwala heard a batch of petitions related to Manipur violence including recent sexual violence. The bench slammed the investigation as ‘lethargic’, carried out by the Manipur police. The SC bench observed that the state police is incapable of performing the investigation as well as questioned them regarding the 7 arrests so far despite registering around 6,000 FIRs. The CJI further opined that such a lethargic investigation would lead to an erosion of public trust in the efficacy of the legal system as well as question the functioning of the constitutional machinery. The SC asked, “The state police is incapable of investigation, they have lost control. There’s absolutely no law and order. If law and order machinery cannot protect people what happens to citizens?” In this context, the bench ordered the Director General of Manipur Police to be personally present on the Court premises on August 7, Monday. 

The SC ordered, “Based on the preliminary data, it does prima facie appear that the investigation has been tardy. There has been a considerable lapse between the occurrence and the registration of FIRs, recording of witness statements and even the arrests are few and far between. In order to enable the court to appreciate the entire dimensions of the nature of investigation that is required, we direct the DGP of Manipur to be personally present in the Court at Monday 2 PM (August 7, 2023) and be in a position to answer the queries of the Court.” It also ordered that the “State must carry out the process of disaggregation and inform the Court on how many FIRs deal with murder, rape, arson, and looting, destruction of house property, outraging of modesty of woman and destruction of places of religious worship and grievous hurt.” Along with this, CJI also mentioned constituting an independent body consisting of former High Court judges to carry out the investigation. CJi Chandrachud said, “We are thinking out loud- we may think of constituting a committee consisting of former judges of High Courts. It will be a broad-based committee. First, we will decide on the remit of the committee such as relief, compensation, rehabilitation- to sort of supervise the work of the government.”