The appointment of a full time chief justice in the Manipur high court has been delayed with the N Biren Singh-government sitting over a Centre’s correspondence for more than a fortnight, even as a high court order by the acting chief justice to consider including the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list became the trigger point for the ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the Kukis in the northeastern state.
The clashes started in Churachandpur district of Manipur on May 3 after a group of tribals took out a march to protest against the high court order and the Meitei community’s demand to be included into the ST category (AFP)
On July 5, the Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, made recommendations for the appointments of chief justices in high courts of Bombay, Gujarat, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, the collegium, which also included justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna, made prospective recommendations for the future vacancies of chief justices in the high courts of Odisha, Telangana and Kerala. Of the seven recommendations, six have been notified by the Centre following the respective state governments’ clearance, leaving out only Manipur.
Following the state government’s nod, justices Sunita Agarwal, Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and DS Thakur have taken over as the chief justices in the high courts of Gujarat, Bombay and Andhra Pradesh respectively. Justices Alok Aradhe and AJ Desai were appointed as chief justices in the high courts of Kerala and Telangana while Orissa high court judge Subhasis Talapatra was cleared as the chief justice of the same high court after justice Muralidhar retires on August 7. But the proposal regarding the Manipur high court remains in limbo awaiting a response from the state government.
According to people aware of the matter, the Union law ministry wrote to the state government on July 7, seeking views of the governor and the chief minister regarding the appointment of Delhi high court judge Siddharth Mridul as the new chief justice of Manipur high court. The people cited above said that the Centre cannot process the appointment of new chief justice for Manipur high court since the state government is yet to respond.
The memorandum of procedure (MoP), which guides the appointment of judges and chief justices in the constitutional courts, lays down that it is only after the views of the concerned state government is received that the law ministry can submit proposals to the Prime Minister, who will then advise the President as to the appointment.
For an appointment of a judge in a high court, the MoP provides that if the comments of the chief minister and the governor concerned are not received within six weeks, the ministry can presume that they have nothing to add to the proposal and proceed with the collegium’s recommendation.
Justice Mridul’s name was proposed by the collegium after modifying the previous recommendation of sending justice Thakur as chief justice of the Manipur high court. Justice Mridul, incidentally, is the senior most high court judge who is yet to be appointed as a high court chief justice.
A single judge bench of justice MV Muralidaran, who is presently acting chief justice of the Manipur high court, had on March 27 directed the state government to send within four weeks a recommendation to the Centre on the demand for ST status by the Meitei community. The clashes started in Churachandpur district of Manipur on May 3 after a group of tribals took out a march to protest against the high court order and the Meitei community’s demand to be included into the ST category.
Over the two previous hearings in May, the Supreme Court had taken a grim view of justice Muralidaran’s order, saying that any direction on inclusion or otherwise of a community in a SC/ST list was beyond the remit of a court and that a constitution bench ruling in the state of Maharashtra Vs Milind in 2000 clearly laid down the law in this regard. On May 8, the CJI-led bench observed that a court cannot direct the inclusion of any community in the SC/ST category. “This power the high court never had. This is the presidential power. How could high court direct the state government that it shall forward the recommendation to the Government of India?” it asked on that day.
As it took up a bunch of petitions relating to the volatile situation in the northeastern state again on May 17, the top court remarked: “It is a completely wrong order. We gave time to justice Muralidaran to remedy his error but he did not...We have to take a strong view against it now...It is clear that if high court judges do not follow Constitution bench judgments, then what we should do.”
However, the bench refrained from issuing any directive after it was informed that justice Muralidharan’s order has been appealed against before a division bench of the Manipur high court where the state government has also pressed for an extension of the time frame to take a decision on granting the ST status to the Meiteis by one year.
Justice Muralidaran has been functioning as the acting chief justice of the Manipur high court since February 6
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