The Supreme Court Wednesday came down upon the Manipur High Court for its recent judgment which had called for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list.
The judgment had triggered violent clashes between tribal and non-tribal communities.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said that the judgment was “factually incorrect” and also against the principles laid down by the Supreme Court Constitution bench judgments as regards classification of communities as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
“We have to stay the order of the Manipur High Court. It is completely factually wrong and we gave time to Justice Muralidharan to remedy his error and he did not. We have to take a strong view against it now. It is clear if High Court judges do not follow constitution bench judgments then what should we do.. it is very clear,” the CJI remarked.
The Court nevertheless did not impose any stay but noted that since an appeal has been filed before the division bench of the High Court against the judgment of the single-judge, aggrieved parties can present their case before the division bench.
The Court was hearing a slew of petitions seeking directions to the Central and State governments to ensure the safety of Manipuri Tribals after the High Court judgment led to violent clashes in the State.
In March this year, Justice MV Muralidharan of the Manipur High Court had ordered the Manipur government to “consider inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period four weeks” from the date of the order.
This led to clashes between tribal and non-tribal communities leading to loss of lives.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, told the apex court on Wednesday said that the High Court judgment was contrary to the Supreme Court’s judgments.
The State of Manipur informed the apex court that a writ appeal has been filed by the All Manipur Tribal Union against the judgment of Justice MV Muralidharan of March 27.
The Court noted that a division bench of the High Court had issued notice in that writ appeal and the same is slated to be heard on June 6.
The Court further noted that the State of Manipur also moved an application before Justice Muralidharan to grant extension of time to implement the judgment and the judge has allowed such extension.
“We leave it open for parties aggrieved by single judge order to make submissions before the division bench and parties aggrieved by writ appeal order can move this court,” the Supreme Court said.
Pertinently, the Court also directed the government authorities to ensure that law and order is maintained.
“Let the state of Manipur apprise us of what steps have been taken. As a constitutional court we will ensure this,” the top court directed.
Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar said that illegal immigrants are coming from Myanmar and they want to settle in Manipur.
“They are involved in poppy cultivation and that is how these militant camps are growing therein,” Kumar said.
Advocate Nizam Pasha said that the Chief Minister’s (CM) official Twitter handle was putting out provocative tweets.
“The CM is speaking about Kuki foreigners and you destroyed manipur in the name of christianity etc and this is from the CM official handle,” Pasha said.
The Court said that it wont enter into political arena, but nevertheless asked the Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to ensure that Constitutional authorities act with restraint.
“Mr SG, there must be restraint on part of the authorities.. please advise the constitutional authorities to act with restraint and not make such statements,” the Court remarked.
“This is not a very legal proceeding now.. We will not allow our forum to be dragged into areas which are politics and policy. We know the remit of the constitutional court,” the CJI further said.
The SG said that illegal immigrants Coming from Myanmar is a real issue.
“State is alive to that fact,” the SG maintained.
- Agencies