Manipur: Two court orders that must be welcomed

The Constitution has provided protection to land belonging to scheduled tribes, often under the sixth schedule of the Constitution, as land is the only asset that these deprived people are in possession of.

Editorial, EOI, 24 February 2024 : An order of Manipur High Court directing the deletion of a paragraph of an order of the same court in March 2023 asking the state to consider including the Meitei community in the list of scheduled tribes must be welcomed as the first concrete step in ending the ethnic violence in Manipur that is now spinning out of control. 

The Manipur High Court has stated in the order that the paragraph in question is in conflict with a stand of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. The stand of the apex court must also be welcomed.

The paragraph in question saying “the Manipur government shall consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei or the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list expeditiously, preferably within a period of four weeks,” a part of the order of the Manipur High Court passed on March 27, 2023, is believed to have been a catalyst to the ethnic unrest. The spiral of violence started in Manipur on May 3,2023, when a “Tribal Solidarity March’ was taken out in the Churachandpur district for the protection of tribal land. 

On May 20, 2023, the Meetei Society, Churachandpur, said in a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the rally was a “not at all related to the ST demand of the Meeteis but is the outcome of Manipur Government’s stringent action on illegal immigrants, eviction of encroachers from reserve forests and protected forests, war on drugs, destruction of large-scale poppy plantations and the growing demand for implementation of NRC in Manipur.

”Now it is an old grievance among people of the Meitei community in Manipur that they cannot buy land in the hill areas of the state, these being tribal areas and purchase and sale of land being restricted within scheduled tribe communities, whereas people from the hills can buy land in the valley areas which are non-tribal areas and the land is not protected. The underlying malady is the geographical setting of the state of Manipur.

The valley area constitutes only a small part of the total geographical area of the state, but the large majority of the population of the state is concentrated in the valley areas. The hill districts have a lot of area, but the population is small and widely dispersed. It cannot be denied, however, that people living in the hill areas are often more deprived in comparison with people in the valley areas; in terms of basic facilities like health and education. 

The Constitution has provided protection to land belonging to scheduled tribes, often under the sixth schedule of the Constitution, as land is the only asset that these deprived people are in possession of.

There is also merit in the complaint that illegal immigration from across the Myanmar border has increased; and together with it the incidents of poppy cultivation, particularly in the Churachandpur district. Since the military coup in Myanmar, illegal immigration has increased.

Poppy cultivation too is on the rise. 

It is reported that some of the poppy cultivators have shifted their base from trouble-torn Myanmar to Manipur. These aspects, too, need attention. 

The Centre has already taken steps in this regard, however, putting curbs on the existing facility of free movement of local people across the Myanmar border up to a certain distance. Delhi is also planning to fence the border between Manipur and Myanmar.