Members of the Meitei Tribes Union have now filed a plea to defer the hearing in the appeal filed against the contentious March 27 order, which became the immediate trigger for the ethnic violence that has riven the State for over one and half months now.
Meitei Tribes Union was the organisation that had first approached the High Court and secured an order directing the State to recommend the Meiteis’ inclusion in the ST list.
After the March 27 order became public, protests by existing STs grew in the State, leading to a Tribal Solidarity March on May 3. After one of these marches in Churachandpur ended, violence broke out and spread to other parts of the state. So far, over 100 have been killed, hundreds more injured, and tens of thousands internally displaced in the violence.
