The Supreme Court on Monday said the trial of the Manipur ethnic violence cases, probed by the CBI, would be conducted in Guwahati, Assam, where it was transferred to earlier. 

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna also extended till July 31, 2025, the tenure of a committee headed by Justice Gita Mittal, the former chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. 

The panel, also comprising former Bombay High Court judge Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon, former Delhi High Court judge, was set up on August 7, 2023 by the top court to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic violence in Manipur.

The tenure of the panel was previously extended by the top court by six months on August 5, last year. 

On Monday, the bench noted the submissions of a lawyer over the fate of the trials in the cases that were transferred to Guwahati for pre-trial proceedings by the bench on August 25, 2023. “We clarify that the trial of transferred cases will be held before the courts at Guwahati,” the CJI said.

Keeping in mind the “overall environment in Manipur and the need for ensuring a fair process of criminal justice administration”, the top court transferred to Assam, 27 cases, having various offences, including the sexual assault case of the two women seen in a viral video being paraded naked.

While passing a slew of directions, the top court had directed the Gauhati High Court chief justice to nominate one or more judicial officers to deal with the transferred cases. Of the 27 cases, 20 related to charges of molestation, rape, murder whereas three related to loot of weapons. 

On the supply of the several reports submitted by the judges' panel to all the litigants, the bench was in the affirmative but asked the parties to exercise caution due to the "sensitivities involved". Concurring with the bench, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Manipur government, pointed out the possibility of some having "other motives".

The bench posted the next hearing in the week of July 21. On December 9, last year, the bench directed the Manipur government to submit a detailed sealed-cover report on the number of properties that were fully or partially burnt, looted, or encroached upon during the ongoing ethnic violence in the state. 

It had emphasised the need for the state to address the grievances of the displaced persons and take steps to restore their properties. The court also directed the Manipur government to provide specific details such as “buildings burnt or partially burnt, buildings looted, buildings trespassed or encroached upon”.

The report was ordered to also provide information on the owners and current occupants of these properties, along with the details of any legal actions taken against trespassers. The report was directed to indicate the steps taken by the state government to ensure trespassers were proceeded against as per the law. 

"You have to take a decision on how you want to deal with it or in terms of criminal action as well as to ask them (encroachers of the properties) to pay ‘mesne profits' for the use of the occupation…,” the apex court had said. Mesne profit is the compensation paid to a rightful owner of a property by a person who is in unlawful possession of it.

The top court also asked the state government to respond to the issue of release of funds for temporary and permanent housing as flagged by the judges' panel. In August, 2023, the top court asked former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the probe into the criminal cases. 

Over 200 people were 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.