'Top court not a platform to escalate Manipur tensions'

Disapproving any endeavour to convert the proceedings before it into a platform for fuelling further violence in Manipur, the Supreme Court on Monday observed that it cannot run the security apparatus in the riot-hit state and that it is chiefly for the government to maintain law-and-order while the court can only act as a "facilitator".

- Utkarsh Anand

A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, was hearing a clutch of public interest litigations (PILs), demanding a spate of orders ranging from probe into the ethnic clashes that has overrun the state since early May claiming at around 150 lives, to ordering deployment of additional security forces. The petitions relating to the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki have also asked for various other rescue and rehabilitation measures.

With one of these pleas alleging that the killings of tribals is sponsored by the N Biren Singh-government in the state, the bench, also comprising justice PS Narasimha, made it emphatically clear it will not allow the court proceedings to be a reason to intensify violence in Manipur.