Manipur probe monitor, panel of ex-HC judges to submit progress report to SC in 2 months

On August 7, the court had said it would appoint Padsalgikar to head the probe committee and also the three-judge committee headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal. However, the order regarding this was uploaded only on Thursday.

In the order, the Supreme Court expressed its “anguish of the manner in which women have been subjected to grave acts of sexual violence in the course of the sectarian strife” and 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 court said that “mobs commonly resort to violence against women for multiple reasons, including the fact that they may escape punishment for their crimes if they are a member of a larger group. In time of sectarian violence, mobs use sexual violence to send a message of subordination to the community that the victims or survivors hail from. Such visceral violence against women during conflict is nothing but an atrocity. It is the bounden duty of the state – its foremost duty, even – to prevent people from committing such reprehensible violence and to protect those whom the violence targets”.

Stating that “its intervention will be a step towards the guarantee of non-repetition that victims of such crimes are entitled to”, the bench said that “the victims of violence must receive remedial measures irrespective of their community” and “likewise, the perpetrators of violence must be held accountable irrespective of the source of violence”.

Issuing directions “to ensure the fairness of the investigation”, the Supreme Court said that Padsalgikar will “supervise the investigation by the CBI into the FIRs transferred to it and the investigation by the investigative machinery of the state into the remaining FIRs”.

“For the purpose of ensuring proper investigation of the FIRs…transferred to the CBI,” the Supreme Court asked the Union Home Ministry “to place at the disposal of the CBI five officers drawn from the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and NCT of Delhi at least of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. At least one of these five officers shall be a woman”.

“On deputation, the officers shall perform their functions under the overall structure of the CBI and submit periodical information and reports as may be required by Shri Dattatray Padsalgikar,” the court further said.

It also asked Padsalgikar “to investigate the allegations that certain police officers colluded with perpetrators of violence (including sexual violence) during the conflict in Manipur”.

The court asked the home ministry to also make available on deputation 14 officers not below the rank of superintendents of police in charge of the special investigation teams (SITs) probing FIRs being investigated by the Manipur police.

These SITs, the court said, “will visit each relief camp within the area assigned to it and make it known that it is an impartial body which is accepting complaints of violence (including sexual violence)”.

The Supreme Court added that the “SITs constituted by the state…shall not consist exclusively of members belonging to either one of the communities involved in the clashes…”.

The ex-judges’ committee also comprising former Bombay High Court judge Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi and former Delhi High Court judge Justice Asha Menon will, among others, also “enquire into the nature of violence against women…from 4 May 2023 from all available sources including personal meetings with survivors, members of the families of survivors, local/community representatives, authorities in charge of relief camps and the FIRs lodged as well as media reports”.