Plea to deploy Army in Manipur: SC says will never direct the forces

On Tuesday, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing some tribal groups from the state, sought to draw the attention of the bench, also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Mishra, to what he claimed was one-sided attacks on people belonging to tribal communities.

Taking exception, the CJI said, “This can’t be the tenor of suggestions. For instance, you are asking the court to direct the Indian Army and paramilitary to take particular steps. Frankly…in the last over 70 years, the Supreme Court has not given directions to the armed forces…. One of the great hallmarks of democracy (is) civilian control over the armed force. Let’s not breach that. That’s one of the strong points of this nation. We will not do that. We are not going to issue directions to the Army.”

Later, the bench said this in its order: “Petitioner seeks intervention of the court in the form of direction to Army and paramilitary forces to take such steps as are necessary to provide security in the villages (to come under further attacks)…. Maintenance of law and order (and) preservation of security of the state are essentially matters which fall in the executive domain. We are of the view that it would not be appropriate for this court in the exercise of its power of judicial review to issue specific directions in regard to the deployment of Army or paramilitary forces, which must be left to the state administration and the Union of India to oversee.”

The court also referred to what the Manipur Chief Secretary said about deployment of security forces in the latest status report filed by the state.

The court asked both the Centre and the state government to “make sufficient arrangements to ensure protection of lives and property of all citizens and residents of Manipur”.

The CJI then remarked orally that for the court to get into “where exactly a battalion should be deployed…is very dangerous”. He observed, “We are…monitoring the situation. If it becomes necessary for us to pass some calibrated orders beyond what we have done, we will not fight shy of doing it, conscious as we are of the remit of judicial review”.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta protested some of Gonsalves’s submissions that accused the Centre and the state government.

Intervening, the bench told Gonsalves, “These are allegations…. It’s a fact for you. It’s a matter of investigation eventually. The moment you say certain terrorist organisations are aligned with and protected by the state and Central governments, the SG is not going to accept and we will not be able to make any headway.”

The court asked Mehta to look into some of the suggestions put forth by advocate Mohammed Nizam Pasha, who represented the Zomi Students Federation of India, and take “positive action…within a period of three days, on or before Friday”.

The court sought an action taken report on this within a week.