Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a notice in response to a petition filed by two women from the Kuki tribal community. Their petition seeks a directive for government hospitals to offer free medical treatment to individuals escaping violence in the state of Manipur. Additionally, the plea requests appropriate guidelines mandating the police to file zero FIRs, as the local police have been resistant to registering FIRs thus far.

The bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud , Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Misra, also grouped this matter with other related pleas concerning the violence in Manipur that are currently before the court.

The plea describes the plight of people who have been uprooted from their homeland and have been targeted in the ongoing violence in the state. The plea states that several people including the petitioners are left with with no means to sustain themselves, in the aftermath of the violence.

“The Petitioners like several other Kuki tribal community people have been denied of their basic human rights and right to life and livelihood. There have been no steps taken to help the Kuki people either during or aftermath of the violence. The Petitioners and other people from the said community who have escaped from the State of Manipur to other states are facing severe economic burden to re-establish/recover from both mental and physical injuries", the petition states.

Further, the petition has requested the establishment of an online portal. This portal would facilitate the disbursement of central/state-approved family pensions to violence victims without the need for physical document verification. The petition also proposes the creation of a web portal that would enable victims to upload their medical documents to claim reimbursement. Furthermore, it suggests the development of an online platform where victims can upload their complaints or FIRs for the purpose of investigation and compensation.

“The Petitioners were subjected to brutal torture, witnessing their family members being killed before their eyes.”, 

“The Kuki tribal communities have a long-standing history of staying in the State of Manipur and as citizens of India, their fundamental rights of Article 14, 19 and 21 have been repeatedly denied. There is ample evidence to show that Kuki tribal communities have been targeted based on certain erroneous facts in the hate speech/interviews of ministers/state agencies.” the plea says.