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The Manipur high court on Wednesday deleted a portion of an earlier order passed by it in March last year directing the state government to consider inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list — an important step amid a bitter ethnic conflict in the state that has claimed at least 215 lives and displaced around 50,000 people since May last year.
The high court order passed on March 27 is believed to be one of the main triggers for the clashes between the tribal Kuki community, who largely live in the hill districts, and the dominant Meiteis, who largely live in the plains.
Acting on a review petition filed by six members of Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union, (the same people who had filed a petition last year seeking inclusion of the community in the ST list), justice Golmei Gaiphulshillu passed another order on Wednesday deleting portions of the March 2023 order.
In its March 27 order, the HC order had said: “The first respondent (the Manipur government) shall consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the scheduled tribe (ST) list, expeditiously, preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.”
With the Manipur high court recalling this directive on Wednesday, the Manipur government was finally released from its obligation to follow the high court decision that required it to consider adding the Meitei community to the ST list.
In march last year, the government was given less than two months by the high court to comply with the judgment. Then, by an order on May 9, the state government was granted an extension of time by a year. The deadline, therefore, was just over a month away.
But proceedings in the Supreme Court last year played a pivotal role in the review of the March 2023 order. While hearing a bunch of petitions relating to the ethnic strife in the state following the controversial order, the apex court in May last year berated the high court order, observing it was against a previous Constitution bench ruling, and that the high court had exceeded its jurisdiction.
The high court’s decision on Wednesday considered the concerns raised by the Supreme Court as it proceeded to remove the contentious part of its 2023 order.
The Manipur high court on Wednesday said that Para 17 (iii) of the March 27 order “needs to be reviewed” as it was “against the observation made in the constitution bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court”.
“Accordingly, the direction given at Para No 17 (iii) needs to be deleted and is ordered accordingly for deletion of the Para No 17 (iii) of the judgement and order dated March 27, 2023,” the order passed by Manipur high court on Wednesday said.
Calls made to office bearers of MTU, the petitioners in the case, went unanswered. Manipur government spokesperson Sapam Ranjan Singh could not be reached for comments. Khuraijam Athouba, the spokesperson of Coordination Committee for Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a prominent Meitei organisation, said it has no opinion on demand for ST status for the community.
“The Meitei claimed they have history way back to 30 AD and that they were advanced race. Such advance group of people now demanding to be a backward class (ST) is absurd and ridiculous. The only ploy for the demand of ST by the Meitei is to grab the tribal lands, because the constitution of India allow tribal lands to be purchase by tribal alone,” said Ginza Vualzong of Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), an influential Kuki organisation.
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