(Combines several stories)
The Congress on Tuesday said the Centre cannot escape its responsibility over the violence in Manipur after the Supreme Court pointed out that the Manipur High Court does not have the power to recommend reservations.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, while citing a report quoting the chief justice of India said, “In light of what the CJI has said it’s astonishing what a single judge of Manipur High Court did – triggering such a human tragedy!”.
“But the ideological brotherhood, its henchman in Manipur, and his masters at the Centre cannot escape their responsibility,” Ramesh said on Twitter.
He cited a news report that quoted the CJI saying the high court does not have power to direct changes in Scheduled Tribes list and asked why a Constitution Bench verdict of 2000 noting that courts do not have power to “add or subtract” the ST List was not “shown” to the Manipur High Court.
The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had a hearing on a batch of pleas on the Manipur situation on Monday, including one by a ruling BJP MLA challenging the high court order on the issue of Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community.
Appeals had been filed by Dinganglung Gangmei, BJP MLA and chairman of the Hills Area Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. In his appeal before the apex court, Gangmei has contended that the “proceedings before the high court were vitiated on account of not making the HAC a party” and the HC order created tension and led to violence between the two communities.
The appeal filed by Gangmei against the March 27 order of the Manipur High Court said that three basic errors were made in the judgement which includes directing the State to make a recommendation to the Central government to include the Meitei community as a scheduled tribe in the Presidential list.
“The second mistake is the conclusion that the issue of inclusion of the Meiteis was pending for nearly 10 years and the third mistake is in concluding that the Meiteis are tribes,” the appeal said.
The appeal said that the Meitei community is not a tribe and has never been recognised as a tribe and in fact they’re very much an advanced community though some of them may come within SC/OBC.
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On Monday, when one of the advocates said he is representing the original petitioners (who sought quotas for Meitei community) before the Manipur High Court, the SC bench told him he ought to have shown to the high court two constitution bench judgements showing it does not have the power to recommend reservation.
“You never told the high court that this power the high court does not have. These are presidential powers…,” the bench said.
It said since Tushar Mehta, the solicitor general, has maintained action is being taken by the state before a competent forum with regard to reservation for Meiteis, the apex court will not go into it any further.
“We must give that forum an opportunity to correct itself,” it said, adding the top court has made its concerns very clear to the Mehta.
The bench said right now, its immediate target is “protection, restitution and stabilisation” and it is concerned about only these humanitarian problems.
“All that we are trying to tell you is, you may flag your concerns in an appropriate manner so that these proceedings before the Supreme Court do not become another ground for de-establising….,” the bench told the petitioners.
The bench noted in its order: “The solicitor general has stated that the state of Manipur is taking appropriate steps in respect of order of a single judge of the high court dated March 27, 2023 by moving the competent forum in that regard.”
The bench, while taking note of Mehta’s submissions, posted the pleas for further hearing on May 17, and asked the Centre and the state to file updated status reports.
