Five-member SC judges' delegation arrives in Manipur's Imphal, to inaugurate legal aid clinics
IMPHAL: A delegation of Supreme Court judges arrived at the airport here on Saturday morning and is scheduled to visit people displaced due to ethnic violence in Manipur, officials said.
The top court delegation led by Justice BR Gavai was accorded a warm welcome by the lawyers' fraternity of the state at the airport.
The judges are scheduled to visit relief camps and virtually inaugurate legal services camps, legal aid clinics and temporary medical facilities from the Mini Secretariat in Churachandpur district around 10.40 am and later, they will go to a relief camp at Moirang College in Bishnupur, the officials said.
"We are very happy to be here. We have just come here and are looking forward to the visit," one of the visiting judges told reporters.
Justice N Kotiswar Singh, who is part of the delegation and belongs to the Meitei community, will not visit the Kuki-majority Churachandpur district, amid objection from a lawyers' body there, the officials said, adding that Justice Singh will head for Bishnupur district.
The All Manipur Bar Association (AMBA) has urged its Churachandpur district counterpart to withdraw its directive preventing a Meitei judge of the Supreme Court from visiting the Kuki-Zo-dominated area.
AMBA president Puyam Tomcha Meitei told PTI that the visit of the Supreme Court judges is historic and first-of-its-kind.
The apex court judges will also attend an event at the High Court of Manipur on Sunday.
More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.
