Clamour for President’s Rule increasing in Imphal, says former Chief Justice of Manipur High Court

Justice (retd.) Siddharth Mridul says violence continues due to infiltration and smuggling of arms and drugs through Myanmar

Former Chief Justice of Manipur High Court Siddharth Mridul said on Friday (November 29, 2024) that the “clamour for President’s Rule seems to be gaining momentum in Imphal”, which saw protests and violence after six women and children were abducted by armed militants in Jiribam during an encounter with security forces on November 11 and were later found killed.

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Justice (retired) Mridul, who demitted office on November 21, said in an interview with The Hindu that at no stage can it be said that peace has returned to Manipur and that the situation has worsened in the past one year.

He said that the violence continues in the northeastern State due to problems such as infiltration, smuggling of drugs and arms through Myanmar. He also said there has been a demographic change in Manipur over the years.

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The Free Movement Regime (FMR), which existed between India and Myanmar for decades, was suspended by the Union Home Ministry earlier this year. The Centre’s decision to suspend the FMR is being “opposed by all communities bar the Meiteis”, the retired judge said.

Manipur has 34 Scheduled Tribes, which includes Naga and Kuki-Zo communities.

“There is infiltration, whether they are Indians or not is not for me to say, but there is a lot of trans-border movement from Myanmar. There are a lot of refugees coming in from Myanmar which is in a troubled state,” he said, adding that the Army is being tasked to keep track of all those who are claiming refugee status.

Justice Mridul said that attributing the ongoing ethnic violence to the March 2023 Manipur High Court order “would be far from the truth and most unfair”. He said that it was only the spark that lit the fire as Manipur had been sitting on a powder keg with simmering discontent for a long time.

“The simple issue that was pending before the High Court then, and that judgment has now been reviewed by the Manipur High Court after I took charge as chief [justice], was asking the State government to respond to the Central government in relation to the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s all. It did not direct anybody to give an ST status to Meiteis. But it was blown out of proportion locally. It was made to seem as if they were directed to be included as ST. And there was a reaction which was unprecedented, which was violent to say the least,” he said.

The Manipur High Court on March 27, 2023 had directed the State government to submit its recommendation on the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST list asking the administration to consider the proposal preferably within four weeks. On May 3, 2023, a tribal solidarity rally was organised in all hill districts, following which the violence erupted starting from Churachandpur. More than 250 people have been killed and around 60,000 people have been displaced in the ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki-Zo people and the Meitei people since then.

“Eventually whether a community can be categorised as a Scheduled Tribe or not is not within the domain of the judiciary at all,” Justice Mridul said.

The retired chief justice, who took charge on October 20, 2023, said that he used to be accompanied by personal staff from other communities such as the Nagas and the Meitei Pangals (Muslims) if he had to travel from the Imphal Valley to the hill areas and vice versa.

He said that judicial officers were under continuous threat and their free movement was restricted in the State. “So, the first step that was taken by me was to ask the State government to provide adequate security to all the judicial officers. The second thing that had to be done, and this is the responsibility of the State to produce their witnesses. If the prosecution witness doesn’t turn up, you cannot progress a case till the time that the evidence is recorded. It is impossible to take it to its logical conclusion,” Justice Mridul said.

Justice Mridul said that when he first arrived in Manipur there was a “complete Internet ban” across the State with exemptions built in for essential services and the court immediately asked the government to explain how it could impose a “complete ban”.

“Within a short period of time, I believe a fortnight, we were able to limit Internet shutdown to the areas where there was persistent violence. And that was permitted only from the standpoint that social media was being used to incite people and to mislead them.”

After May 2023, all the Kuki-Zo people left the valley, he said. “Similarly in the hills, there are no Meiteis. So, the difficulty was that we had to reorganise the judiciary to post officers who would preside over courts in the hill areas dominated by the Kukis and other tribes. And similarly in the valley. Unfortunately, the only way forward was that Meitei judicial officers were posted in the valley and tribal officers and other officers, the Pangals, were posted in the hills. The other thing about Manipur is that although it has 16 districts, there are only eight judicial districts and most of the courts were functioning from government buildings, which gave them some sense of security, but it is not the ideal situation for the court to be located within the same building as the executive,” he said.

He said there is also an issue of “interested parties, groups of people entering the court complex to prevent the judge from discharging his functions independently and attempting to influence them”.

The retired judge said that the problem has not been addressed satisfactorily at all. “We have sent the government missives, given them a wish list, and asked them to ensure that judicial proceedings are not interrupted in any manner. But we haven’t made much headway yet,” he further said.

Published - November 29, 2024 11:57 pm IST