IMPHAL, 20 Jun: The Manipur High Court has admitted a review petition seeking to modify its 27 March order that directed the state government to recommend inclusion of the Meitei community in the scheduled tribes (ST) list.
Based on the petition, the court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the state government, seeking their response.
The review petition by the Meitei Tribes Union (MTU) was admitted for hearing by a bench of Acting Chief Justice MV Muralidharan, who had also authored the 27 March order.
In the order, Justice Muralidharan has directed the Manipur government to reply to the union tribal affairs ministry on a file related to the request for inclusion of the Meiteis on the ST list.
The high court noted that the Meiteis have submitted several requests for ST status to the Centre from 2013 onwards – a request that was forwarded to the state government for a formal recommendation.
But the state government never acted on it, the high court said, before directing it to respond to the union government.
In addition to this direction, the HC said, “The first respondent shall consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the scheduled tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.”
“It is this part of the order that we have sought a modification of. There is a Supreme Court judgment that says inclusion or exclusion of any community is the prerogative of the Parliament and the president. So this direction does not comply with that,” MTU advocate Ajoy Pebam told PTI.
“We have simply asked them to revise the single bench order,” he said, adding, “We want the Manipur government to respond to the letter since it is not authorised to grant ST status.”
The high court has now listed this review petition for the next hearing on 5 July. (PTI)