SC to hear plea of two women seen in video being paraded naked in Manipur

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The Supreme Court will shortly hear a plea by the two women who were seen in a video being paraded naked in strife-torn Manipur.

A batch of pleas pertaining to the Manipur violence will be heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

As the matter was called for hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two women, said they have filed a petition in the matter.

The apex court on July 20 observed that it was “deeply disturbed” by the video of two women being paraded naked in strife-torn Manipur, saying that using women as instruments for perpetrating violence is “simply unacceptable in a constitutional democracy”.

Taking cognisance of the video, a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India directed the Centre and the Manipur government to take immediate remedial, rehabilitative and preventive steps and apprise it of the action taken.

Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after a May 4 video surfaced last week that showed two women from one of the warring communities being paraded naked by a few men from the other side.

Scores of people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.