Manipur The High Court rejected the order to include Matei in ST, after the same order last year, communal violence broke out in the state.
The Manipur High Court, in its order dated March 27, 2023, ordered the deletion of the paragraph which had urged the state government to consider including the Matei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list. The High Court said that the above paragraph is against the stand of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. It is believed that due to this order of the High Court on March 27, caste violence broke out in the state, in which more than 200 people lost their lives.
The Manipur High Court, in its order dated March 27, 2023, has ordered the deletion of the paragraph which had urged the state government to consider including the Matei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list. The High Court said that the above paragraph is against the stand of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. It is believed that due to this order of the High Court on March 27, caste violence broke out in the state, in which more than 200 people lost their lives.
A single bench of Justice Golmei Gafulshilu, while hearing a review petition on Wednesday, quashed the said order. In last year's decision, it was said in this paragraph that the state government would consider the case of the petitioner as soon as possible for including the Matei category in the ST list. For this, the government was given four weeks' time from the date of receipt of the order.
Justice Gaifulshilu in his judgment pointed to the procedure laid down by the Government of India for amendment of the ST list and stressed the need to vacate the said order. He said that it is necessary to remove the instructions given in paragraph number 17(3) and order is given to remove paragraph number 17(3) of the decision and order dated 27 March 2023.
In its 19-page judgment, the court referred to the constitutional protocol in the 2013-14 report of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and underlined the need for coordination with the constitutional interpretation of the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the November 2000 judgment of the Constitution Bench underlined the legislative jurisdiction over judicial intervention relating to ST classification. The Constitution Bench had made it clear that courts should not exceed their jurisdiction in determining such classification.