Today, the Supreme Court issued a directive to the Bar Associations in Manipur, instructing them not to obstruct any lawyer, irrespective of their community, from practicing before the courts.

The bench, comprised Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, emphasized that this directive was not in response to a specific complaint but served as a general caution to all lawyers, emphasizing the importance of ensuring unimpeded access to justice.

Furthermore, the bench warned that any breach of this directive would be considered contempt of the court's order.

The court issued this directive during its proceedings related to a series of petitions concerning the ongoing ethnic conflicts in the state between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May of this year.

During the hearing today, Senior Advocate Anand Grover submitted that lawyers appearing for a particular committee were being threatened, attacked, and prevented from appearing before the Manipur High Court and that lawyers must be provided with protection.

 CJI DY Chandrachud expressed disinclination by saying–

"Why give protection only to lawyers? Why not all citizens then? We don't believe that the High Court is not working..."

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Manipur High Court Bar Association, submitted that the Bar Association President, who is present in the Court room, can personally vouch that all lawyers are granted access.

The CJI questions Association President – "Mr President, are any community's lawyers being prevented to appear before the court?".

To this, the President said - ''No lawyers were being prevented from appearing before the court. In response, the CJI asked the President to show a sample of orders which would indicate that lawyers from all communities are appearing before the High Court.''

"You can also give us a bunch of orders to show that members of bar are not being prevented to appear based on religious or any other affiliations. This is just to satisfy our conscience".

Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, who represented the State of Manipur,  stated that according to a report submitted by the Registrar General within 30 days, a total of 2,638 cases were scheduled for hearings, and the option of virtual hearings was accessible daily. Mehta asserted that this data indicated that the High Court was operating in a regular manner.

Furthermore, he added that the petitioners were making an "unfortunate attempt to exacerbate the situation by involving the court."

"There are nine judicial districts which covers all sixteen districts in Manipur. The State of Manipur along with the Chief Justice of the High Court shall ensure that video conference facility are set up and operationalised to ensure that any member of bar or litigant can address the court. The video conferencing shall be operationalised no later than one week of this order.", the Court said in its order.

"The members of the bar shall ensure that no lawyer is prevented from appearing before the court. Any violation of this direction shall be treated as contempt."

While closing the matter for the day, the CJI said–

"We have not acted on any complaint, we have just cautioned...we want to ensure access to justice."