Manipur violence: Supreme Court to hear batch of pleas on Monday
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a set of pleas pertaining to the Manipur violence. The pleas include one by a BJP MLA, challenging a high court order on the issue of Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community and a PIL by a tribal outfit for an SIT probe into the violence, PTI reported.
The deadly violence happened in the state a week ago and had slightly spilt over neighbouring Meghalaya too.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narashima and JB Pardiwala is scheduled to hear the matter.
It was last Wednesday the clashes between Meiteis and tribals started in the Churachandpur district. The tribals opposed reservations to the Meiteis. On March 27, the state High Court ordered the state government to send a recommendation to the Centre within four weeks on the demand for ST status by the Meitei community.
According to a PIL filed by an NGO, 'Manipur Tribal Forum', it has moved the top court under Article 32 of the Constitution on account of the extreme situation arising out of the attacks on the tribal community in Manipur by a "dominant group".
The PIL alleged that the attacks on tribals have the full backing of the party in power, supporting the dominant group. It sought directions to the Centre and Manipur to evacuate Manipuri tribals who had fled their villages. It alleged that the attacks began on May 3, and several churches and hospitals were also damaged. Mobs went on a rampage, putting houses, establishments, businesses and vehicles belonging to tribals on fire.
Though 30 people were killed and 132 injured, no FIRs were registered, nor were any investigations conducted.
The plea filed by the BJP MLA said there is no recommendation of the state government for inclusion of the Meitei community in the scheduled tribe list, and there is no recommendation for such inclusion pending before the central government. He claimed that the court made a mistake by issuing directions to the State government to recommend to the Centre to include the Meitei community in the tribal category.
