India
Supreme Court on Manipur Violence: Army is under civilian control, can’t breach that rule for Manipur | India News
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NEW DELHI: The Manipur high court bar association on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court through an “official document” that huge infiltration of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and drug trafficking were the main reasons behind the violence in Manipur, a statement which the Centre appeared to support.
Appearing for the bar association, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar handed over a copy of the official document from Myanmar purportedly indicating large-scale illegal migration of Rohingya Muslims into Manipur’s hill districts, where illegal poppy cultivation for the drug trade has been flagged by a UN report.
Appearing for the Union and Manipur governments, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra, “There is a systematic inflow, engineered proceedings with ulterior agenda.”
Appearing for Kuki ethnic groups, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves alleged that violence against tribals had escalated and demanded a direction from the SC on deployment of Army and paramilitary forces in tribal villages.
Chiding Gonsalves, the CJI-led bench said, “Frankly, in the history of our nation in the last 70 years, the Supreme Court has not given directions to the Indian Army. One of the great hallmarks of democracy is the civilian control over armed forces. Let us not breach what has been a strong point of our nation. We will not do that. We are not going to issue direction to the armed forces.”
Asking all concerned from warring ethnic groups to abjure hate speech, the bench appreciated advocate Nizam Pasha’s constructive suggestions — facilitating families with missing persons to access mortuaries where unclaimed bodies are kept; adequate number of doctors in district hospitals in hill districts; provisioning essential commodities; facilitating holding of classes for medical students; deferring examinations as schools and colleges have been converted into relief camps; helicopter services from hill districts to Imphal if the ground situation and facilities permit; and restoration of mobile phone services. The SC sought an action taken report on these suggestions from the Manipur government in two weeks.
The bench told the SG to impress upon the Manipur government to include Zomi and Kuki MLAs and ministers in the seven committees formed for overseeing relief and rehabilitation work in seven districts of the state. The SG also agreed to the suggestion of Zomi Students Union for making the security advisor the head of the inter-agency unified command.
When Colin Gonsalves repeated his demand for deployment of Army and paramilitary forces to protect vulnerable villages, the bench said, “Maintenance of law and order and preservation of security of state are essentially matters which fall in the executive domain. We are of the view that it would not be appropriate for this court to issue specific directions in regard to deployment of Army or paramilitary forces, which must be left to the state and Union governments. At the same time, we impress upon the governments to ensure protection of lives and properties of residents of Manipur.”
Appearing for the bar association, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar handed over a copy of the official document from Myanmar purportedly indicating large-scale illegal migration of Rohingya Muslims into Manipur’s hill districts, where illegal poppy cultivation for the drug trade has been flagged by a UN report.
Appearing for the Union and Manipur governments, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra, “There is a systematic inflow, engineered proceedings with ulterior agenda.”
Appearing for Kuki ethnic groups, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves alleged that violence against tribals had escalated and demanded a direction from the SC on deployment of Army and paramilitary forces in tribal villages.
Chiding Gonsalves, the CJI-led bench said, “Frankly, in the history of our nation in the last 70 years, the Supreme Court has not given directions to the Indian Army. One of the great hallmarks of democracy is the civilian control over armed forces. Let us not breach what has been a strong point of our nation. We will not do that. We are not going to issue direction to the armed forces.”
Asking all concerned from warring ethnic groups to abjure hate speech, the bench appreciated advocate Nizam Pasha’s constructive suggestions — facilitating families with missing persons to access mortuaries where unclaimed bodies are kept; adequate number of doctors in district hospitals in hill districts; provisioning essential commodities; facilitating holding of classes for medical students; deferring examinations as schools and colleges have been converted into relief camps; helicopter services from hill districts to Imphal if the ground situation and facilities permit; and restoration of mobile phone services. The SC sought an action taken report on these suggestions from the Manipur government in two weeks.
The bench told the SG to impress upon the Manipur government to include Zomi and Kuki MLAs and ministers in the seven committees formed for overseeing relief and rehabilitation work in seven districts of the state. The SG also agreed to the suggestion of Zomi Students Union for making the security advisor the head of the inter-agency unified command.
When Colin Gonsalves repeated his demand for deployment of Army and paramilitary forces to protect vulnerable villages, the bench said, “Maintenance of law and order and preservation of security of state are essentially matters which fall in the executive domain. We are of the view that it would not be appropriate for this court to issue specific directions in regard to deployment of Army or paramilitary forces, which must be left to the state and Union governments. At the same time, we impress upon the governments to ensure protection of lives and properties of residents of Manipur.”
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