The SC directed the Centre and the Manipur government to return with information on six points on August 1, 2023

Today, the Supreme Court of India heard the matter related to the Manipur Violence where two women were paraded naked. While hearing the case, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said ‘by saying that this and this happened elsewhere’’ we cannot justify what happened in Manipur. This statement was given by the CJI in response to a lawyer who addressed crimes against women in Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. During the Court proceedings, the CJI asked, “There is no gainsaying the fact that crimes against women are taking place in all parts. The only answer is this. You cannot excuse what is taking place in one part of the country like Manipur on the ground that similar crimes are happening in other parts too. Question is how do we deal with Manipur. Mention that… Are you saying protect all daughters of India or don’t protect anyone?” A request was made to the Supreme Court by the women’s lawyer to monitor the probe, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said, “The government doesn’t have the data now to tell you how many such cases have been registered. That shows the state of affairs.” Further, SC asked the Centre regarding the count of crimes against women, out of around 6,000 FIRs. To which the Centre replied that they do not have information for the same now. In this context, the SC asked the Manipur Government and the Centre to report back tomorrow, August 1, 2023, with information on six important points as mentioned below:

• “Break-up of cases”
• “How many zero FIRs”
• “How many arrested so far”
• “How many transferred to the jurisdiction Police Station”
• “How many Section 164 statements recorded so far”
• “Status of legal aid to the arrested accused”

While addressing the Manipur violence case, the SC termed the offences against women ‘horrendous’ and said, “Time is running out for us, there is a great need to have a healing touch in the state”. It also added, “This not just one case like Nirbhaya. That is one isolated incident. Here it’s a systematic violence perpetrated”. SA Kapil Sibal alleged that the police were collaborating with the culprits rather than providing protection to the women. He added, “Incident on May 4. Zero FIR was registered on May 18. Transferred to the concerned police station in June. The video went viral on July 19 and only after this court took cognizance, things progressed in the case. The survivors should have confidence in the investigation”. The Centre requested to transfer the case to CBI which was objected to by SA Sibal. Along with this, SA Indira Jaising said, “The survivors are traumatized and terrorized. We are not sure whether the survivors will tell the truth to a CBI team. They should have the confidence to tell the truth.” She further asked to constitute a committee of women members from civil society. The SC said, “Merely entrusting to CBI or SIT would not be enough, We will have to picture a situation where a 19-year-old woman who has lost her family is in a relief camp. We cannot have her going to the magistrate. We have to ensure that the process of justice goes to her doorstep. We will constitute a committee of women judges and members of civil society, who will, in turn, get the assistance of members of civil societies.” In association with the Manipur violence, the West Bengal assembly passed a motion during the assembly session condemning the violence in Manipur. The motion was presented by Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.