5-member SC judges team meets violence-hit people in Manipur; opens legal services, medical camps

Imphal: A five-member team of Supreme Court judges, headed by Justice B. R. Gavai on Saturday, visited the camps for the ethnic violence affected in Manipur’s Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts and met displaced men, women and children sheltering there, officials said.

Justice Gavai, who was accompanied by fellow apex court judges Vikram Nath, M.M. Sundresh, K.V. Vishwanathan, and N. Kotiswar Singh and the Manipur High Court’s Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice Golmei Gaiphulshilu, also virtually inaugurated a legal services camp, a medical camp and a legal aid clinic in the tribal-inhabited district from the Mini Secretariat.

The judges, immediately after arriving in Churachandpur, visited the Sadbhavana Mandap relief camp and interacted with the inmates, who have been sheltering in the camps after they were displaced from their villages following the ethnic violence breaking out on May 3, 2023.

From the Churachandpur district, the judges’ team went to the Bishnupur district and interacted with the inmates in the relief camp there.

The Supreme Court judges team also visited the Indian National Army (INA) museum at Moirang in Bishnupur.

Justice Gavai is the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).

Earlier in the day, senior lawyers of Manipur accorded a warm welcome to the Supreme Court judges after they arrived at the Imphal airport.

The Supreme Court judges team will also attend the 12th-anniversary celebration of the Manipur High Court on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Saturday inaugurated several new infrastructure and innovation projects at the College of Agriculture at Iroisemba, including a newly constructed girls’ hostel and new Type-IV staff quarters.

The Governor then visited the College of Food Technology at Lamphelpat in Imphal and inspected the Biofloc Unit and Food Processing Pilot Plant located on the campus. He also inspected various stalls at the exhibition-themed Technology and Machinery Demonstration Mela-2024-25, AICRP, on post-harvest engineering and technology and interacted with students and officials.

IANS