NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a sealed cover status report from the Manipur government on recovery of arms and ammunitions looted from police and other sources, while declaring that it would put in place a mechanism to bring to book every wrongdoer during the ethnic clashes without blaming either Kuki or Meitei communities. A bench led by CJI D Y Chandrachud said, “Personally, I am averse to sealed cover reports as it is shown to the court and not to the parties. But if you feel it is a sensitive matter and only the court should be apprised of the status report, you can make the report available only to the court.”
Senior Advocate Sapam Biswajeet said, “Arms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were looted by Kuki militants at Churachandpur on May 3, the day the clashes started with a solidarity rally taken out by All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur (ATSUM) that turned violent. What about that? In other places, Kuki militants are looting arms and ammunition. Why no one is speaking about it? Presenting only one-sided pictures before the court results in problems at the ground level.”
Advocate Junior Luwang said disarming of militants under SOO agreement should be the priority as these militants had looted arms from designated camps.
The CJI took strong exception and said, “Are we discriminating? We are not concerned with the source of wrongdoing or human suffering. We are concerned with wrongdoers, irrespective of the source (ethnicity). Even for disarmament, there are illegal arms on both sides. We want the state to act irrespective of the source where illegal arms are situated.”
“Investigation of crime, dealing with various aspects of human sufferings, recovery of arms, providing compensation — these have to take place across the board,” the CJI said, and asked the Manipur government to inform in two weeks whether the Manipur Victim Compensation law has been updated to bring it on par with the scheme framed by National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
Referring to the submissions of the SC-appointed Justice Gita Mittal Committee during the last hearing that there is shortage of food and essential commodities and outbreak of chicken pox and measles in relief camps at Moreh in Tengnoupal bordering Myanmar, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said these were false assertions that caused panic in the state.
Start a Conversation
Post comment