SC Forms All-Women Judicial Panel To Monitor Manipur Humanitarian Issues

Pics courtesy India Today

New Delhi: As Manipur continues to be affected by ethnic violence which reared its ugly head more than three months ago, the Supreme Court is taking every possible step to ease the situation in the north-eastern state.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said on Monday it would constitute a committee comprising three former female high court judges to monitor issues like relief and rehabilitation of those affected in the Manipur violence, reported India Today.

The all-women committee will be headed by former Jammu & Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and include Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon.

Constituted to look into aspects other than investigation, Justice Chandrachud said that the order was passed to restore confidence, faith in the rule of law and build trust.

The country’s top court also decided to appoint former IPS officer Datta Padsalgikar to oversee the investigation, and report back to the court.

Further, the court has proposed to get five officers, not below the rank of DySP, from other states to oversee the CBI investigation, while 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) constituted by Central the government will be supervised by 6 DIG-rank officers from outside Manipur.

All these SITs should have one inspector from outside Manipur, the Supreme Court directed.

On transfer of trials outside the state, the court said: “It is premature to transfer trials. We are still at this stage of investigation. We are asking for reports from the committee.”

The Supreme Court had said on August 1 that there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.