NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday extended the tenure of the Justice Gita Mittal Committee by six months. The committee has been overseeing humanitarian and rehabilitation efforts for victims of last year’s ethnic violence in Manipur, which impacted hundreds of thousands in the state.A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra granted the extension after senior lawyer and Amicus Curiae Vibha Makhija informed the court that its tenure ended on July 15 and argued that an extension was necessary for the committee to continue its crucial work.”The committee chaired by Justice Gita Mittal stands extended by six months,” the bench said in its order after hearing Makhija’s arguments.On August 7 last year, the bench ordered the setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims and compensation to them, besides asking former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the probe in criminal cases. The committee was authorised to submit its reports directly to the top court, which is monitoring the cases related to ethnic strife.The panel, headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Mittal, includes Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi High Court.The three-member panel was established shortly after the apex court described as “deeply disturbing” a video showing women being paraded naked in Manipur. The court had also criticised the Manipur police investigation as “tardy” and expressed strong disapproval of the state police’s handling of the case, highlighting its concern over the sexual violence committed against women.Notably, over 200 people have been killed, several hundred injured, and thousands displaced since ethnic violence first broke out in the state on May 3, 2023, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
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