NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday transferred 27 cases — related to crimes against women and children in Manipur that are being probed by the CBI — to Assam for trial and tasked Gauhati High Court chief justice Sandeep Mehta to nominate one or more judges to take charge of them.
On August 21, the top court had appointed Justice Gita Mittal committee to oversee the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic violence in Manipur.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra rejected the submissions of many lawyers, who opposed the transfer of CBI cases to Assam.
They went with the recommendation of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the Manipur government, who said the transfer was suggested keeping in mind better internet connectivity in Assam. Besides, both states share a border.
“Instead of troubling the judges in Manipur, let one session judge be designated at Assam. The situation has improved,” Mehta said. Addressing apprehensions of petitioners on pre-trial hearings in Assam, the CJI said, “no order was cast in stone”. He added that the order will be reviewed after the commencement of the actual trial.
“When the actual trial starts, we will review this order. At that stage, if we find that Manipur has returned to normalcy, we will bring the cases back to be tried in Manipur. We can do that under Article 142 of the Constitution... What we are doing now is only for the present moment,” the CJI said.
Expressing concerns about a fair trial, the bench said, “There have been victims in the valleys of Manipur and there have been victims in the hills of Manipur. People belonging to community A have suffered, people belonging to community B have suffered... We are not on who suffered more...We are concerned about fair trial... There are some immediate things to be done like production of accused, judicial remands, extension of remands, recording the statements of victims and witnesses, etc.”