Manipur violence: SC forms all-women judicial committee; 42 SITs to probe cases

The Supreme Court on Monday said a three member committee comprising of former High Court judges will be established in the matter involving ethnic violence in Manipur. According to Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, this committee will focus on issues with humanitarian significance and will broaden its scope beyond the scope of the current probe.

"To handle issues outside the purview of the probe, a committee made up of three High Court justices would be formed. They will specifically focus on humanitarian issues," the CJI said. Former Bombay High Court Judge Shalini Joshi and Justice Asha Menon will also serve on the team, which will be led by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal.

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The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud noted: "In line with our commitment to maintaining public trust, we propose to direct the secondment of five officials, each holding a rank not below Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), from diverse states to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)."

According to the SC panel, which also included justices J. B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, these 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) would be led by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) level officers from various states, with each DIG officer in charge of six SITs.

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The Chief Justice of India added, "Former police officer Dattatray 'Datta' Padsalgikar will assume the role of monitoring the investigation."

On August 1, the Supreme Court declared that both the constitutional order and law in Manipur had completely broken down. It condemned the state police for conducting slow and careless investigations into cases of racial violence, especially when those crimes targeted women. As a result, on August 7, it called the Director General of Police (DGP) to answer questions.