The Manipur High Court on 21 February removed its instruction to the Manipur Govt given last year that sparked the riots in the state which started in May 2023. The High Court had asked the state govt to recommend the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, triggering massive protests and violence by the Tribal Kuki community. The court has now revised its earlier order and deleted the instructions to the state govt.
The judgement came in a review petition filed in the matter, and Justice Golmei Gaiphulshillu said that the court’s earlier direction was contrary to the Supreme Court ruling that courts cannot modify, amend or alter the ST list.
“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 judgment and order dated 27.03.2023 passed in W.P.(C) No. 229 of 2023,” High Court said in the order passed on 21 February 2024.
Notably, para 17(iii) of the High Court order on 27 March 2023 said, “The first respondent shall consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order in terms of the averments set out in the writ petition and in the line of the order passed in WP(C) No. 4281 of 2002 dated 26.05.2003 by the Gauhati High Court.”
The court had also directed the first respondent, the Manipur government, to submit the recommendation in reply to the letter dated 29.5.2013 of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. Vide this letter issued 11 years ago, the union govt had asked the state govt to submit a formal recommendation along with the latest socio-economic survey and ethnographic report, but the Manipur govt failed to do so.
With this order last year, the High Court had asked the Manipur govt to consider the demand of granting ST status to the Meitei community and to submit a formal recommendation to the union government. The order had triggered massive violence in the state, and the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter.
Now, reversing the order, the High Court said that it is satisfied that the 27.03.2023 order needs to be reviewed, and its Para No. 17(iii) needs to be removed. The court ruled that Para No. 17(iii) of the judgement by a single judge is against the observations made by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India.
The high court cited the Supreme Court order in the “State of Maharashtra V. Milind & Others” case from 2001, where it had said that “Courts cannot and should not expand jurisdiction to deal with the question as to whether a particular caste, sub-caste; a group or part of tribe or sub-tribe is included in any one of the Entries mentioned in the Presidential Orders issued under Article 341 and 342 particularly so when in Clause (2) of the said Article, it is expressly stated that said orders cannot be amended or varied except by law made by Parliament.”
The Supreme Court had said that such power rests solely with the Parliament, and courts can’t intervene in such matters.
The petition was filed by All Manipur Tribal Union and 4 other organisations, challenging the earlier high court order. The petitioners had said that groups associated with the rights of the tribal community were not a party to the writ petition in which the March 2023 direction was passed. They also argued that the judgment has adversely affected the fundamental and constitutional rights of 34 recognized tribes in Manipur.
The tribal groups have been arguing that the Meitei community is a dominant community, alleging that the Meitei people want to grab their jobs by becoming STs.
In the meanwhile, Meitei petitioners also filed a review petition saying that the March 2023 order may be modified. They said that the “innocuous” direction in the earlier order may have to be modified considering the delicate nature of the issue.
The review petition further added that they later discovered that the March 2023 order of the Manipur High Court is barred by the Supreme Court order. However, they only said that the instruction on para 17(iii) may be modified, but maintained that the state government is free to recommend adding Meiteis to the ST list.