New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday disclosed that a three-member panel of former women High Court judges would be set-up to supervise the diverse aspects of rehabilitation work in strife-torn Manipur. The apex court added that the Deputy National Security Advisor and ex-Mumbai top cop Dattatray Padsalgikar will oversee the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Manipur Police probe into cases registered in connection with the ethnic clashes in the state.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud revealed its broad outline on how the court intends to intervene to restore a “sense of confidence and faith in rule of law and build trust, faith and confidence” in the Northeast state. A formal order on the directions would be released Monday evening.
The court was hearing a suo-motu cognisance case, which it registered after the purported video of naked women being paraded in Manipur went viral. Later, many petitions were also filed asking for judicial intervention to normalise the situation.
Former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal will head the three-member committee of women judges, the bench said. It will comprise former Bombay HC judge Shalini P. Joshi and Delhi HC judge Asha Menon. Both Justices Joshi and Menon served as district judges for many years before getting elevated to their respective HCs.
Chandrachud indicated the “broad-based remit” for this committee. “These judges would look at things, apart from investigation, including relief remedial measures, rehabilitation, compensation, restoration of homes and religious places,” he said. The bench asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta — who appeared for Manipur government — to make adequate security arrangements for the judges’ panel whenever they seek to visit Manipur.
Spelling out the court’s two-level proposed mechanism to monitor criminal investigation into the cases, the bench said Padsalgikar’s appointment will be an additional oversight layer, which will report to the court.
“I have personally spoken to him in the morning today and he has agreed to take up the task. He is a highly decorated officer who has a wide experience in investigation. We are not calling him an SIT,” the CJI told the lawyers connected to the matter and who were present in the court.
A Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, Padsalgikar served in Nagaland when he was on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
Also read: Politics of power brought Manipur ethnic violence. Time to move to justice
SC on the cases that will go to CBI
On the rape cases registered in the state and transferred from Manipur Police to the CBI, the bench said that though it will not supplant the Central probe agency, it would, at the same time, consistent with its mission, ensure there is a sense of faith. “We are not casting any aspersion on the CBI,” the CJI clarified.
The court said that it proposes to direct a minimum of five officers of the rank of at least Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) to be brought into the CBI from various states, on deputation, specifically for the purpose of overseeing the investigation of cases that are now with the CBI.
These officers, the court said, would be the ones conversant with spoken Hindi language and would work within the four corners of administrative and infrastructural set-up of CBI. “A senior CBI officer shall monitor these officers,” the bench explained.
When the petitioners in the case raised a dispute over the number of cases to be transferred to the CBI, the bench asked them to sit with Tushar Mehta and give a final list to its court master so that the order can mention the cases that would be under the Central agency’s jurisdiction.
While Manipur has said that 12 cases would go to the CBI, petitioners have claimed there are 16.
On being told that the state police have constituted about 42 special investigation teams (SITs) to look into cases of heinous crimes such as murder, the bench said that it proposes to include an inspector from an outside state in each of the 42 SITs. These inspectors would be called from the states from where the SPs and DySPs would be chosen to be part of the CBI team probing the rape cases.
“We will have inspectors from these states whom the Union home ministry will depute to Manipur. Each SIT will have one inspector from an outside state,” the bench said.
Further, six Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank officers from other state police would be asked to monitor investigation by the 42 SITs of Manipur police. “They will ensure the investigation proceeds correctly,” the bench said.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)