Manipur high court deletes order on including Meiteis in Scheduled Tribe list
The March 27, 2023, order is believed to sparked the ethnic clashes between the majority Meiteis and tribal Kukis.
In a significant development, the Manipur high court on Wednesday deleted a paragraph from its March 27, 2023 order, with this being the order in which the high court recommended the state government to consider including the majority Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list.
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The proposal to include Meiteis in the ST list was opposed by the tribal Kukis and the high court order is believed to sparked the ethnic clashes that began in May and are still going on, and claimed hundreds of lives.
Which paragraph was removed?
Paragraph 17(iii) of the judgment has been deleted. It stated: "The first respondent shall consider the case of petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period of 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 W.P.(C) No. 4281 of 2002 dated 26.05.2003 by the Gauhati High Court."
Why was the paragraph removed?
Passing Wednesday's order, a bench of Justice Golmei Gaiphulshillu observed that the said paragraph in the original judgment was passed in a ‘misconception of the law’ as the petitioners ‘failed to assist the court properly at the time of hearing of the said writ petition due to this misconception of fact and law.’
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Justice Gaiphulshillu noted that the March 2023 order was ‘contrary’ to the Supreme Court judgment in the State of Maharashtra vs Milind & Ors case, in which the apex court ruled 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,” the single-judge Manipur HC bench ruled.
