Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking probe into narco-cultivation, illegal immigration in Manipur

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 31

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL by an engineer seeking an SIT probe into narco-cultivation and illegal immigration in Manipur.

“This will amount to branding a particular segment in Manipur as terrorists. We aren’t going to do that,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud told senior advocate Madhavi Goradia Divan, who represented petitioner MB Meetei.

Following this, Divan chose to withdraw the petition and it was “dismissed as withdrawn” by the top court.

The Bench, however, said the petitioner was free to pursue his remedies available in law.

Divan submitted that the current violence would end soon but the root causes would remain.

She said the root causes were poppy cultivation and illegal immigration from Myanmar which needed to be dealt with.

However, the Bench said the prayers made in the petition were too general and wide covering several ministries.

Noting that it was a one-sided petition which branded one particular community as terrorists, the Bench refused to entertain it.

“This is not amenable to judicial standards,” the Bench said.

“You can come with a more specific petition…This petition has everything from violence to narcotics to deforestation. Can Article 32 control that?” the CJI wondered.