SC constitutes panel of three former women judges to oversee humanitarian measures in Manipur
NEW DELHI,AUG 7: The Supreme Court on Monday appointed a panel headed by former Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Dattatray Padsalgikar to oversee the probe into offences of rape in Manipur.
The apex court also constituted a panel of three women judges to oversee measures of relief, rehabilitation and rebuilding of houses and places of worship in Manipur. The three judges who will be part of the panel are namely, Justices Mittal, Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon.
The court was hearing a batch of pleas relating to the ongoing clashes in Manipur.
“Our effort is to restore a sense of confidence and faith in the rule of law. We will constitute at one level a committee of three former HC judges. This committee will be looking at things apart from the investigation including relief, rehabilitation of relief camps, remedial measure- remit will be a broad-based committee- who will be looking into diverse aspects of humanitarian nature,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said indicating that a detailed order would be uploaded later.
Considering AG R Venkataramani’s proposal regarding the appointment of Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to probe into the FIRs that have been registered from May to July, the CJI said that the court would depute officers not below the rank of SPs from outside the state to supervise the investigation.
Pursuant to facing the apex court’s wrath on the last date of the hearing, AG R Venkataramani informed the court that SITs in districts would be constituted to probe FIRs. He said that the same will be headed by Superintendent of Police level officers who would monitor the probe weekly and fortnightly.
Last week, the SC had sought DGP’s presence on August 7 at 2.00 PM saying that there was absolute breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in the state for two months from May till July.
Considering the “preliminary data” presented before it that only seven arrests have been made in connection with 11 FIRs involving offences against women and children, the CJI said that the state police is incapable of investigating and has lost control of the situation. He said that the probe has been tardy and there has been considerable lapse between the occurrence of incident and the registration of FIR, recording of statements of witnesses and arrest of the accused.
There is “such a long delay in registration of FIRs. It appears that except for 1 or 2 cases, there is no arrest at all. Look at the way the investigation is so lethargic. FIR registered after two months, arrest not made and statements not recorded. For two months the situation was not even conducive for recording FIRs. It gives us an impression that from the beginning of May till July there was no law and breakdown of constitutional machinery in the state. You are right that the police could not make arrest cause does this not point to the fact that there is a complete breakdown of law and order and machinery of the state,” a bench comprising Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra remarked.
Referring to the statements of two Kuki Zo women in the Manipur viral video case who “indicated” that they were handed over to the mob by the police, CJI asked if the “DGP cared to find whether the police personnel were interrogated.”
-The New Indian Express
