Supreme Court to hear a batch of petitions in Manipur Violence case today (May 8, 2023)

The batch of petitions on the Manipur situation will be heard by the Supreme Court bench including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala today (May 8, 2023). Dinganglung Gangmei, the Chairman of the Hill Areas Committee of the Manipur Legislative approached the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court of Manipur in context with the Schedule Tribe status for the Meitei Community as a tribe of Manipur. The petition filed argued that such an order resulted in violence within the state resulting in the death of 19 people. It also added “Due to the impugned order tension between both the community have taken place and violent clashes have erupted across the state. As a result of it so far 19 tribal people have been killed, various places in the states are blocked, internet is completely shut down and more people are at the risk of losing their lives.” The order was passed by a single-judge bench of the Manipur High Court consisting of Chief Justice MV Muralidaran who directed the state to consider including Meitei Community in the ST list. 

The petition highlighted three errors in the decision of the High Court including ordering the state to include the Meitei Community as a Scheduled Tribe in the Presidential list, concluding that the issue of including the Meitei Community in the ST list was pending for 10 years and the last one was to conclude that the Meiteis are tribes. The petition also stated that “Merely because the State of Manipur may have received some representation by the Meeteis/Meiteis does not oblige the State to do anything unless the State is convinced first, that the Meiteis are tribes and second, that they deserve to be in the Scheduled tribes list. No one can force the state to send such a recommendation in the absence of the state concluding that the Meeteis/Meiteis are a tribe and they deserve to be in the Scheduled Tribes list.” Therefore, this matter was listed for hearing on Monday (today) before the Supreme Court bench.

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