How Manipur is burning in the fight for reservation.

There should now be a meaningful debate in the Supreme Court on the government's failure and the hasty order passed by the High Court, which has affected the sovereignty of the country due to unrest in the border state.

My kingdom is burning!'  After this post of boxer Mary Kom, the attention of the country went towards the violence in Manipur.  This is evident from the recent events in Karnataka and Bihar apart from Manipur.  That the leaders of all parties are using the divide and rule mantra successfully because of the politics of reservation.  But increasing confusion due to court decisions in the political battle of reservation is dangerous from the point of view of the rule of law.  The ball for Muslim reservation in Karnataka and tribal reservation in Manipur is in the court of the Supreme Court.  While the issue of caste census in Bihar is still pending in the High Court.  On examining the order of the Manipur High Court, a picture emerges of the government's failure with the court:

 1. Ignoring the decision of the Constitution Bench, the 8 petitioners who filed the petition in the High Court are associated with the same organization Meitei Trade Union.  Its registration was done last year with the formation of the new government.  Without the response of the governments, after the consent of the lawyers of the state and central government, the single judge bench gave this decision within 15 days of the filing of the case.  The Manipur High Court has based the Gauhati High Court's judgment of 26 May 2003, in which directions were given to give reservation to 8 tribes.  But they did not include the Meitei community.

 On the Manipur case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court made an oral comment and said that the President has the right to notify the ST reservation.  2000 K of a five-judge constitution bench in the Maharashtra case.  The old decision that is being talked about was not followed in both the decisions. The Acting Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court has put on an impenetrable judicial shield by issuing contempt notices against the critics instead of admitting the mistake.

 2. Decisions stuck due to red tape in the states and the Centre: There is a special mention of the letter dated May 29, 2013 in the decision of the High Court.  In that, the Central Tribal Ministry had sought a report from the State Government in 2 months to give reservation to the Meitei community.  According to the verdict, the state government did not take any action on that letter for the last 10 years.  The petitioners approached the Central and State Government in April 2022 before filing the petition in the High Court. Reported to 12 officers.  Within a month, the bureaucracy forwarded that letter and sought the recommendation of the state government on the old reports of 2019 and 2021 as well.  It is clear from the decision of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court along with Articles 342 and 366 of the Constitution that the President has full authority on matters related to tribal reservation.  Therefore, the High Court should not unnecessarily interfere with the states in those matters.  Despite this, instead of taking a concrete decision on this matter, the central government with double engine put the ball in the court of the state government.  The leaders pushed the matter before the High Court.  With the death of innocent people because of this hasty order of the High Court,

Thousands of people have had to take shelter in relief camps.  

3. Accountability should be fixed in the Supreme Court: After the decision of the High Court, the Hill Council has passed the resolution.  According to him, Meitei community has all the benefits of reservation because of getting OBC and SC status.  But in reality, Meiteis not being allowed to buy land in the hilly areas is a big aspect of the dispute.  Illegal cultivation of opium on government land and foreign intrusion are also making the problem worse.  The MLA of the ruling party and then the police chief talked about the use of Article 355 in the state, which has not been officially confirmed.

 But it is clear from this violence that the phased campaign to remove the AFSPA law in the northeastern states including Manipur may suffer a setback.  Due to government red tape and wrong orders of judges, innocent citizens have to go through violence and exodus.  After the speech of Sonia Gandhi in Karnataka, there is a big debate on universality.