A March 27, 2023, order from the Manipur High Court asked the state government to think about adding the Meitei community to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list. The paragraph has now been removed. In the course of considering a review petition on Wednesday, a single bench of Justice Golmei Gaifulshilu struck aside the aforementioned order.
The sentence urging the state administration to take into consideration adding the Meitei community to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list was removed by the Manipur High Court in its ruling dated March 27, 2023.
The High Court declared that the aforementioned paragraph went against the position taken by the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench. Over 200 people have died in the state as a result of caste violence, which is thought to have started as a result of the aforementioned High Court judgment from March 27.
What did the High Court say?
A single bench of Justice Golmei Gaifulshilu on Wednesday set aside the said order while hearing a review petition. The said paragraph in last year’s judgment stated that the State Government would consider the case of the petitioner for including the Meitei community in the ST list at the earliest. For this, the government was given four weeks’ time from the date of receiving the order.
🚩 Manipur HC modifies order on Meitei inclusion in ST list
👥 Deletes paragraph that urged state to consider Meiteis in ST list
👨⚖️ Over 200 died in ethnic clashes that erupted in the state after the contentious March 2023 orderhttps://t.co/XJwcCArprs
— Swarajya (@SwarajyaMag) February 22, 2024Justice Gaifulshilu in his judgment stressed the need to vacate the said order by pointing to the procedure laid down by the Government of India for amendment of the ST list. They said,
Accordingly, the instructions given in paragraph no. 17(ddbdb) need to be deleted and it is ordered to delete paragraph no. 17(dbdbdb) of the judgment and order dated 27th March, 2023.
Referring to the constitutional protocol in the 2013-14 report of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the court in its 19-page judgment underlined the need to harmonize the constitutional interpretation of the Supreme Court. Also, the November 2000 judgment of the Constitution Bench underlined the legislative jurisdiction over judicial intervention related to ST classification.
Many petitions were filed in the Supreme Court
The Constitution Bench had made it clear that courts should not exceed their jurisdiction in determining such classification. Following the violence that broke out as a result of the March 27, 2023 order, several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, including those challenging the High Court order. The top court had termed the High Court order of May 17, 2023 as objectionable.
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