SC moots letting HC take charge of Manipur violence cases’ monitoring

The Supreme Court on Friday suggested shifting the monitoring of the Manipur violence cases currently probed by the CBI to the Manipur high court

The Supreme Court on Friday suggested shifting the monitoring of the Manipur violence cases currently probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Manipur high court, observing that time is of essence in such cases and daily monitoring by the top court is not possible.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said: “In view of the fact that recently a new Chief Justice has taken over in the Manipur high court, let the respondents (state and victims) take instructions on why day-to-day monitoring be not entrusted to the high court.”

The court passed the order while hearing applications filed by victims alleging that the trial in some out of the 27 cases probed by the CBI are progressing very slowly and the victims’ families are not getting any information on the status of the trial. In one such case, a young woman from the Kuki-Zo community who was raped during the ethnic violence in May 2023, died last month waiting for justice.

Advocate Vrinda Grover who represented two cases of sexual violence against women during the violence, one of them being that of the victim who died recently, informed the court that families are in the dark about the progress of their cases. “We recently accessed the trial court records and we have found that the charge sheet is filed in the two cases but the accused are not appearing, the CBI is not present, and the main accused have not been caught,” Grover said.

The bench directed the CBI to provide a status report with regard to the two cases and pointed out, “Time is of essence in these cases. In the Supreme Court, this matter has come up after a very long time.” The last effective hearing was held in March 2025.

Another set of victims represented by advocate Nizam Pasha pointed out that the cases are pending monitoring before the Gauhati high court in view of the August 7, 2023 order passed by the top court due to the prevailing situation in Manipur. The court said, “In 2023, the circumstances were such that a categorical direction by this court was required to ensure a fair and time-bound investigation.”

Grover said that some of the victims may still not be comfortable going to Imphal where the high court is. The court said, “For strengthening the rule of law and to ensure people get justice, we can ask the chief justices of both high courts to ensure how statements of witnesses can be recorded in a free and fearless environment.”

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appearing for the state informed the court that the situation is peaceful in the state and there is no concern regarding travelling to Imphal. “The state is calm and peaceful now. Anybody can travel there. In my view, monitoring can be done by the Manipur high court as the local environment and conditions can be better appreciated by judges there,” Mehta said.

At least 260 people have died and over 50,000 were rendered homeless in the ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kukis-Zo in Manipur which started on May 3, 2023. The two communities are still divided on ethnic grounds and live in separate districts.

The top court while transferring the cases to CBI in August 2023 had directed the investigations to be monitored by former Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra Dattatraya Padsalgikar and formed a three-member Judges committee headed by justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of J&K high court, to look into issues of rehabilitation and resettlement of victims.

Since the passing of this order, the Padsalgikar committee has submitted nine status reports to the court while justice Gita Mittal committee has given 42 reports and more are expected to come before the expiry of the committee’s tenure by July 31 this year. Besides the cases referred to CBI, there are other cases probed by the state police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).