SC agrees to reconstitute bench on Manipur killings  

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to reconstitute a bench for hearing a matter related to extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

The order from a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi came after senior advocate Collin Gonsalves told the court that the matter had not been heard since the retirement of Justice Madan B Lokur in December last year.

Senior advocate told the bench that the matter was being heard earlier by a bench of Justices Lokur and UU Lalit.

The bench assured him that it will try to reconstitute the bench.

Gonsalves, representing some of the petitioners in the matter, told the court that he had mentioned the issue before a bench of Justice Lalit, who directed him to mention it before the Chief Justice.

The matter relates to a probe by a SIT set up by the CBI Director to investigate the allegation of fake encounters by security forces including personnel of Manipur Police in the course of anti-insurgency operations.

The court has been hearing the main case which was a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

On July 14, 2017, the apex court set up a Special Investigation Team comprising CBI officers and ordered registration of FIRs and investigation into the alleged killings.

The court had ordered FIRs in 81 cases including 32 probed by a commission of inquiry, 32 investigated by judicial authorities, 11 in which compensation was awarded and six probed by a commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde.