Months after the ethnic clashes in Manipur snuffed out 175 lives, the Supreme Court witnessed an acrimonious slanging match between the State government and lawyers representing civil society organisations on Tuesday over the last rites of 169 identified bodies lying in mortuaries since May.
“We cannot keep the bodies in the mortuary indefinitely… The violence happened in May,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, pointed out. They deserved a dignified farewell, the court noted and directed the Manipur government to allow the families of the 81 identified victims to do last rites at a government-identified site by December 4.
The Justice Gita Mittal Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court to bring a “healing touch” to the State, had said that the civil society groups are “unfortunately insisting on the burial of bodies at unsuitable sites, causing a great source of mounting tension. These sites are on the inter-district boundary between the hills districts and the valley”.
