SC constitutes committee of 3 women ex-judges to oversee humanitarian issues in Manipur

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will constitute a three-judge committee headed by Justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to look into “humanitarian” issues like relief, rehabilitation, remedial, etc., in the violence-hit Manipur.

NEW DELHI— The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will constitute a three-judge committee headed by Justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to look into “humanitarian” issues like relief, rehabilitation, remedial, etc., in the violence-hit Manipur.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud and Justices J. B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the effort of setting up such a committee is to restore a sense of rule of law in the northeastern state.

Justice Shalini Joshi, retired judge of Bombay High Court and Justice Asha Menon, former judge of the Delhi High Court will also form a part of the three-women judge committee.

The top court said that it is not constituting any SIT in the matter but will appoint former IPS Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the investigation, who will report back to it.

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In relation to the FIRs, which were transferred to the CBI by the state government, the top court said that five officials not below the rank of deputy SP will be brought on deputation to the central agency for overseeing the investigation into gender violence cases. It clarified that these officers, who are nominated by the Director General of Police from diverse states, will be bound to function within the administrative set up of the CBI.

In relation to other FIRs registered in Manipur, 42 SITs will be formed by the state government at district levels to be headed by officials not below the rank of SP. The Supreme Court said that these SITs will be supervised by seven DIG rank officials hailing from other states. “Each officer (DIG) will monitor six SITs to see that the investigation is going correctly,” said the Supreme Court.

It said that each of these 42 SITs will have at least one investigating officer, not below the rank of Inspector, from another state.

During the hearing, Attorney General R. Venkataramani submitted before the top court that the state government is handling the issue at a very mature level.

He said that the Manipur government will form the SITs at district levels, which will be monitored by DIG, IG and additional DG rank officials on a weekly basis. In addition, the Director General of Police will himself monitor the investigations fortnightly, he said.