The Supreme Court on Monday extended, till July 31, the tenure of the court-appointed committee formed against the backdrop of gender violence during the sectarian strife in Manipur.
The committee comprising three woman judges – Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s former Chief Justice Gita Mittal, Bombay High Court’s retired judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, and Delhi High Court’s former judge Asha Menon – was tasked with collecting information related to violence against women in Manipur as well as monitoring the conditions at relief camps and deciding on compensation to victims.
Apart from this, the Justice Mittal-led panel was also entrusted with the payment of compensation and restitution to victims of violence.
The top court had empowered the committee to issue directions to the state government to settle compensation for damages caused to the movable and immovable properties of persons affected by violence.
The committee was mandated to submit its updated status report on a fortnightly basis directly to the apex court.
A bench, headed by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, had said that the objective of the constitution of such a committee was to restore the faith and confidence of the community in the justice system and secondly, to ensure that the rule of law is restored.
Expressing its anguish over the manner in which women were subjected to grave acts of sexual violence during sectarian strife in Manipur, the Supreme Court had said that “subjecting women to sexual crimes and violence is completely unacceptable and constitutes a grave violation of the constitutional values of dignity, personal liberty and autonomy, all of which are protected as core fundamental rights under Part III of the Constitution”.
The top court had said that it was the bounden duty of the state to prevent people from committing such reprehensible violence against women and protect them from the violence targets.
The SC had taken suo moto cognisance of the disturbing viral videos, where two tribal women were paraded naked and sexually assaulted in the violence-hit Manipur. Later, the two tribal women approached the top court claiming that the Manipur Police collaborated with the mob to allow perpetration of sexual violence on them. The apex court had termed the pace of investigation by Manipur Police as “tardy” pace of after noting that there were significant delays between the occurrence of incidents involving heinous crimes including murder, rape and arson and the registration of zero or regular FIRs.
Also Read: 114 Weapons Seized in Manipur as Authorities Push for Voluntary Surrender Deadline
The top court did not constitute any SIT (special investigation team) in the matter but had appointed former IPS officer Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the investigation. Further, it had asked the Chief Justice of Gauhati High to designate courts in Assam’s Guwahati to conduct trials in cases involving violence against women and children which were transferred to the CBI by the Manipur government.
On Monday, the Supreme Court clarified that the trial of these transferred cases will continue before the courts in Guwahati.
