Justice Gita Mittal Committee submits 3 reports before SC on Manipur Violence
New Delhi: The court-appointed Committee headed by former High Court Judge Justice Gita Mittal submitted its findings in three reports before the Supreme Court on Tuesday regarding the recent spurt of violence in Manipur.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud took the reports on record today and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to provide some assistance on the same.
The first report highlights that several residents of Manipur have lost their documentation and need to be provided with the same, the second report dwells on the Manipur victims' compensation scheme and notes that it has to be brought in conformity with the NALSA scheme, and the third is a proposal of the committee for the appointment of domain experts to help with its work.
The committee consisting of former women high court judges—Justice Gita Mittal, Justice Shalini Joshi and Justice Asha Menon—was formed on August 7, 2023, by the Supreme Court to look into diverse aspects of humanitarian nature such as rehabilitation, remedial measures, reliefs, rehabilitation, restoration of homes and religious places, etc. in the violence-hit Manipur.
A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra had further appointed former IPS officer, Dattatray Padsalgikar, who has wide experience, to oversee the investigation by CBI.
In July, the Supreme Court directed the Manipur state’s police to carry out a thorough investigation into the various incidents of violence that occurred throughout the state in the preceding two months.
The top court had further observed that the police had not been in charge of the situation during those turbulent months and no law and order had been maintained by them.
The apex court had also said that merely handing over the probe to the CBI was not enough. "We have to rebuild lives now. So, what better way than having some objective assistance from a court-trusted committee? Not just the state government. We have to instill confidence in the people now," the court had observed.
The Union government in July had informed the Supreme Court that the "unfortunate and unacceptable" incident of sexual assault and violence on two women in violence-hit Manipur, has been transferred to the CBI.
It had also requested the apex court to transfer the trial in the case outside Manipur with a direction that the trial should be conducted in a time-bound manner within six months after the filing of the chargesheet.
The matter will now be heard on Friday.
(With UNI inputs)