SC issues directions for disposal of bodies lying unclaimed in Manipur

Stressing that it “cannot let the pot keep boiling” in Manipur over dead bodies, the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued directives for the burial or cremation of all those killed in the ethnic violence in the state, including 88 that have been identified, but not claimed by their next of kin, by December 11.

- Utkarsh Anand

Either the relatives of the deceased can accept the bodies and perform their last rites at any of the nine burial sites identified by the Manipur government, or the state can go ahead and do the same in accordance with the municipal law, the court ordered. The northeastern state, which has been overrun by ethnic strife between the Meitei and Kuki communities since early May, has recorded 175 deaths in the violence.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, further rejected the idea of mass burials, observing that it does not want the situation to deteriorate by allowing the burials to be converted into a form of protest. Most of the 88 bodies identified but yet to be claimed by their families are Kuki-Zomis and are mainly Christians.

“Frankly, it appears that the idea only is to keep the pot boiling... But we don’t want the pot to keep boiling over the dead bodies. Replies, affidavits and counter affidavits etc... all that will only delay it. We can’t keep these bodies in the mortuaries indefinitely,” said the bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

It directed the state government will intimate the relatives of the 88 dead people, presently preserved in state mortuaries, by December 4. “The state administration shall issue communication to the next of kin on or before Monday next (December 4), stating that they are permitted to carry out last rites with requisite religious observance, within the next one week at any of the nine sites designated by the state (December 11),” recorded the court order.