Stay Manipur HC order on ST tag for Meiteis: BJP MLA in Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: After bloody clashes involving tribals and Imphal valley-residing Meiteis in Manipur over possible Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the latter, the state's Hill Action Committee (HAC) chairperson and BJP MLA Dinganglum Gangmei moved multiple petitions in the Supreme Court challenging two Manipur HC orders — one asking the state government to “consider” recommending ST status for Meiteis and the other directing his personal presence on May 8 for allegedly running down the HC order.

Seeking stay of the HC’s March 27 order directing that the Manipur government "shall consider the case of the petitioner for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list expeditiously, preferably within a period of four weeks”, Gangmei in his special leave petition said, “The HC ought to have realised that this was a political problem in which the high court had no role to play and the political disputes had to be resolved politically.”



“By getting into the political area and making a categorical order that the state government is directed to submit a recommendation for the inclusion of Meeteis/Meiteis in the ST list to the central government, the HC ambiguously and in all probability inadvertently gave rise to strong misgivings and worries and tensions among the tribals,” he said through counsel Satya Mitra.

The HAC comprises all MLAs elected from the hill areas of the state.




The members then elect a chairman and vice-chairman. The body oversees planning and monitoring of all development activities in the hill areas.

The HC had asked the state government to expeditiously consider the issue of inclusion of Meiteis in the ST list after finding that such a decision was hanging for the last 10 years, as evident to the court from a letter from the Union tribal affairs ministry to the state government on May 29, 2013.

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