Supreme Court Asks MHA Committee To Meet Once In 3 Months To Address Issues Faced By People From North East

The Supreme Court recently asked the Monitoring Committee, set up to address the issues of racial discrimination and other grievances faced by the North-Eastern community, to meet at least once in three months. It has also asked the committee to take cognisance of all issues, including those reported in any newspaper.

A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order on February 17, in a 2015 writ petition seeking intervention of the Union Government for the protection of persons from the Northeast residing in various parts of the country, who have been subjected to racial attacks and insults. It sought the framing of guidelines for the safety and security of the Northeast community.

"In that regard, the Committee must take note of any newspaper report(s) relating to any issue or if a member of the Committee brings it to the notice of the Chairman of the Committee, and a meeting should immediately be called for to address the issue and take corrective measures, if necessary."

The bench has also directed the committee to meet on March 15, and a status report of the issues raised, discussed and addressed in the meeting shall be placed before the Court.

It may be recalled that the Ministry of Home Affairs constituted a Monitoring Committee to monitor issues and address grievances related to racial discrimination faced by Northeastern people. The committee is headed by Niraj Kumar Bansod, Joint Secretary, MHA and has eleven other members.

The committee was charged to review the implementation of another committee constituted in terms of the 2014 writ petition in Karma Dorjee & Ors v UOI, under the chairmanship of M.P. Bezbaruah, IAS(retd), member of the North Eastern Council, to look into the various concerns of the people from Northeast States who live in different parts of the country, particularly in metropolitan cities. In Karma Dorjee petition, similar issues were raised and the Bezbaruah committee itself sugguested for a Monitoring Committee.

The mandate of the committee is as follows:

1. to monitor, oversee, pursue and review the implementation of the MP Bezbaruah Committee Report dated 11-7 2014;

2. to monitor the initiatives taken by the Government to curb and deal with the incidents of racial discrimination/racial atrocities/racial violence;

3. to monitor action in respect of incidents of racial discrimination/racial atrocities/racial violence, suggest measures and ensure strict action;

4. to receive, consider and entertain complaints from individuals and groups of individuals who claim to be victims of racial abuse/racial violence/racial atrocities/racial discrimination and forward the same to the National Human Rights Commission and/or the State Human Rights Commissions and/or to the jurisdictional Police Station as the case may be for enquiry and necessary action;

5. to issue necessary directions including calling for reports on incidents of racial discrimination/racial atrocities/racial violence from the State Governments/Union Territories.

6. A decision may also be taken by the Union Government on whether any of the other recommendations should be accepted.

It may be noted that recently, a bench led by the Chief Justice of India requested the Attorney General to examine another plea related to racial violence against people from North East, which was filed in the wake of the Anjel Chakma murder.

Case Details: ALANA GOLMEI v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.|Writ Petition (Civil) No. 53/2015

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Appearances: For Petitioner(s) Mr. Gaichangpou Gangmei, AOR Ms. Alana Golmei, Adv. Mr. Samuel Lalrochan Khobung, Adv. Mr. Maitreya Mahaley, Adv. Mr. Yimyanger Longkumer, Adv. Mr. Kamei Bestman Kkabui, Adv. Mr. Chipika Zhimo, Adv.

For Respondent(s) Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR Mr. Farrukh Rasheed, AOR Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh, AOR Mr. Shantwanu Singh, Adv. Mrs. Pragya Singh, Adv. Mr. Akshay Singh, Adv. Mr. Rahul Dubey, Adv. Mr. Tushar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Zoheb Hossain, AOR Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR

Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General(N/P) Mr. K M Nataraj, A.S.G. Ms. Ruchi Kholi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kanu Agarawal, Adv. Mr. Udai Khanna, Adv. Mrs. Shradha Deshmukh, Adv. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv. Mr. Santosh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Visen, AOR

Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR Ms. Meena K Poulose, Adv. Mr. Chandra Prakash, AOR Mr. Krishnayan Sen, AOR Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Ms. Yanmi Phazang,, Adv. Mrs. Disha Wadekar, Adv. Ms. Ritu Yadav, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Yadav, AOR Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv. Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR Mr. Debojit Borkakati, AOR Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR Mr. Arjun D. Singh, Adv. Ms. Ishika Neogi, Adv. Mr. Divya Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Merusagar Samantaray, AOR Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR Mr. D. K. Thakur, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Kumar Gupta, Adv. Mr. Tavleen Singh, Adv.

Ms. Vallabhi Shukla, Adv. Mr. Joginder Mann, Adv. Mr. Bimlesh Kumar Singh, AOR Ms. Bhagyashree Bhardwaj, Adv. Ms. Kiran Verma, Adv. Mr. Rohit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Parth Awasthi, Adv Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR Ms. Tulika Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Venkat Narayan, Adv. Mr. Sanchit Garga, AOR Mr. Kunal Rana, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Diksha Arora, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singh, Adv. Ms. Aarohi Garg, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Rudraditya Khare, D.A.G. Mr. Harmeet Singh Ruprah, AOR Mr. Anil Hooda, Adv. Mr. Karan Singh, Adv. Mr. Kanishk Sharma, Adv. Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv.

Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. T. K. Nayak, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Adv. Mr. Ashiwan Mishra, Adv. Ms. Aditi Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, AOR Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Ms. Yachna Sharma, Adv.

Ms. Arushi Chopra, Adv. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Mr. Akshat Kumar, AOR Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv. Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Mr. Abhinav Rana, Adv. Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Santosh Ramdurg, Adv. Mr. Yogesh Vats, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General(N/P) Mr. K.M. Nataraj, A.S.G. Ms. V Mohna, Sr. Adv. Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Sr. Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Ms. Shradha Deshmukh, Adv. Ms. Kanu Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv. Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv. Mr. Aravindh S., AOR Ms. Anika Bansal, Adv