Supreme Court’s Intervention in Manipur: A Review

• The editorial ‘Welcome spotlight: On the Supreme Court directive to Manipur government’ criticizes the executive’s reticence and lack of accountability for ethnic violence in Manipur.

• The court’s interventions in Manipur have been criticized for a gradual slide towards institutional dereliction, complacency, and apathy.

• The court did not hold any effective hearings or pass corresponding orders in 2024, with the main batch of petitions heard only six times.

• The court’s responses were episodic across several months in 2023, remaining largely absent in 2024.

• The Supreme Court had directed the formation of a committee of three retired judges and the constitution of 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) in six groups based on the crimes.

• The SITs have been reduced to a bureaucratic ritual of filing occasional reports.

• The court’s directions have failed to instill justice among the people of Manipur or arrest feelings of institutional neglect and the complete erosion of the rule of law.