Supreme Court Constitutes All-Women Judicial Committee To Oversee Probe In Manipur

The Supreme Court bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud today (7 August), constituted a three-member all women judicial committee in Manipur.

The committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and comprise of former judges, Justices Shalini Joshi and Asha Menon for examining the probe conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Manipur Police in relation to various incidents of violence in the State of Manipur.

The committee will be examining the ongoing probe and suggest remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation for the ones impacted. 

The Supreme Court however stated that the committee will not supplant the CBI, but the same has been constituted to ensure faith in the rule of law. The court refused to transfer the trial to a state outside Manipur. 

Moreover, the entire probe will be looked into by former Maharashtra DGP and NIA Officer — Dattatray Padsalgikar. 

With respect to the hierarchy in respect of both CBI and SIT probe, the court stated that, “We are proposing to direct that there shall be 5 officers of rank at least DySP who will be brought into CBI from various states and we will ask the Director General of Police from the states where Hindi is spoken and have 5 officers to be brought on deputation to the CBI to oversee the investigation into these FIRs. These officers will also function within four corners of administrative set up of the CBI and will be supervised by joint director of CBI”.

The court further stated, “There will be about 42 SITs which will look at cases not transferred to CBI. One inspector from that state will also be brought in by MHA in those 42 SITs so that one officer outside the State is there in each of those cases. These 42 SITs should be supervised by 6 DIG Rank officers from outside the State of Manipur... each officer will oversee 6 SITs”.

The bench was hearing petitions regarding the outbreak of violence in Manipur, including the plea by two women who were seen in a video being paraded naked.