Manipur violence: SC sets up panel of 3 former women HC judges to look into relief & rehabilitation

The top court also favoured appointing former Maharashtra DGP Dattatrey Padsalgikar to oversee police probes in the state.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would constitute a team of retired High Court Judges - namely Justices Geeta Mittal, Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon - to consider diverse aspects including measures for relief, rehabilitation, rebuilding homes and places of worship in the strife-torn border state of Manipur.

The top court also favoured appointing former Maharashtra DGP Dattatrey Padsalgikar to oversee police probes.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra proposed including five or six deputy SP rank officers from different states in the CBI probe team for investigating 11 cases of rape and sexual assault, including one where two women were paraded naked on May 4, 2023.

After hearing Attorney General R Venkatramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Manipur government respectively, and other counsel, the court indicated the broad outlines of the order proposed to be passed by Monday evening.

Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh was present at the hearing before the court to answer queries on the ongoing ethnic violence in the state and measures taken so far, besides the bifurcation of cases for the purposes of effective investigation.

During the hearing, the bench said the court will not supplant the CBI since the agency is probing the FIRs transferred to it by the state government.

The Manipur government said it would constitute six SITs comprising senior police officials for six districts to probe offences committed amid the ethnic clashes between the Kukis and the Meiteis.

The court ordered that for each SIT, there would be a inspector level police officer, brought from outside the state.

"But to ensure faith in rule of law," the bench said it is considering directing that there shall be five or six officers of the rank of at least Dy SP who will be brought into the CBI from various states to oversee the investigation into the FIRs.

It is to be noted that Justice Mittal is the former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Joshi is a former Bombay High Court judge and Justice Menon is a former Delhi High Court judge.

On August 1, the Supreme Court had said that from the beginning of May till the end of July, there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur, even as it sought the personal presence of the state police chief to provide details of actions taken in over 6,000 FIRs filed in the violence-torn state.

The court asked where people would go if the law and order machinery was unable to protect them.

It found the state police's investigation into the May 04 video case "tardy and lethargic" and observed a lapse between the occurrence of the offences and the recording of the statements of the victims.

A status report filed by the state government stated that150 deaths have occurred in the violence-hit state, which included 59 deaths between May 3 and May 5. It said 28 persons lost their lives between May 27 and May 29, while there were over 5000 cases of arson, and 502 people were injured in the violence. The report said out of 6500 cases, 11 FIRs involve crimes against women and children.