The Supreme Court has refused to urgently list the interlocutory application (IA) filed by the Manipur Tribal Forum that alleged Central government’s assurances to the Apex court with regard to the recent outbreak of violence in Manipur as false and non-serious.
A vacation bench that had Justice Surya Kant and Justice MM Sundresh has taken note of the issue calling it as serious but added that it will hear the case only after normal functioning is resumed in the court post the summer break.
The Court remarked.This is a serious issue of law and order .. I hope court is not required to pass orders for army intervention etc”,
The issue was mentioned before the Bench by Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves who submitted that the application was for the security of the tribal areas and seventy tribal persons were killed even after the Central government’s assurances.
“This institution is our last hope and even after assurance the tribals are being killed”, he said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, submitted that security agencies were doing their best.
“So sorry this is being said,” said SG Mehta.
“We will list the case on July 3 and not before that,” the Court said.
The application filed on June 9 by the tribal welfare body alleged that since the last hearing of the issue in apex court, 81 more persons belonging to the Kuki tribe have been killed and 31,410 Kukis displaced.
Further, 237 churches and 73 administrative quarters have been torched and 141 villages destroyed, the Court was told.
“The assurances of the authorities are not useful anymore and made in a non-serious fashion and are not even intended to be implemented. The reason why this hon’ble court ought not to rely anymore on the empty assurances given by UOI (Union of India) is because both the UOI and the Chief Minister of the State have embarked jointly on a communal agenda for the ethnic cleansing of the Kukis,” the forum submitted.
It stressed that the media coverage portraying the violence as a clash between two tribal communities is far from the truth. The attackers are backed by the ruling party in power, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the forum has contended.
Therefore, without such groups being arrested and prosecuted, ‘any semblance of peace will be fragile’, the application added.
Pertinently, the application flagged the involvement of top politicians and drug kin-pins in poppy cultivations that are dependent on tribal workers.
The forum was among the parties who had moved the top court seeking directions to the Central and State governments to evacuate Manipuri Tribals who had fled to CRPF camps and to ensure that they reach their residences safely under a security escort.
On May 8, the Manipur government assured the Supreme Court that concerns regarding the ongoing violence will be addressed and remedial measures will be taken on a proactive basis.
The Court had then called for due arrangements to be made in relief camps and for necessary precautions to be taken to rehabilitate displaced persons and to protect places of religious worship.
The Union Home Ministry had later constituted a committee led by former Gauhati High Court Chief Justice, Ajay Lamba, to probe the matter.
The forum in its IA submitted that this arrangement is unacceptable as it was done without consulting the tribal groups who are the victims.