SC asks panel for law reforms to protect people from North East by Dec 18

The Supreme Court has directed the Centre's committee that monitors violence and harassment against people from the North East living elsewhere in India to recommend changes in law for their protection by December 18, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday, October 20.

The order

In an order passed on October 14, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva said the committee "shall also address the issue of necessary changes being made in the law to ensure protection" and make recommendations to the authorities.

The order came on a petition filed by advocate Alana Golmei.

Recording complaints

The court was told that some complaints could not be acted on because complainants could not be traced. It directed that, from now on, full details including addresses of complainants be recorded as soon as a harassment complaint is received, and that further action follow without fail. It also asked that victims' statements be recorded soon after an incident.

Committee pulled up

The bench criticised the committee for a lack of "seriousness". At its last meeting on September 8, only three of its 11 members attended in person, the rest joining by video, including two under secretaries based in Delhi. The court called this "distressing". In February, it had told the committee to meet at least once every three months.

The committee reviewed nine cases of violence and harassment from the past year, from Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. They include the attack on MBA student Anjel Chakma and his brother in Dehradun's Selaqui area in December last year.

The Bezbaruah recommendations

After the death of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in Delhi in 2014, the Centre set up a committee under former IAS officer M.K. Bezbaruah. It recommended new provisions in the Indian Penal Code: a Section 153C on hate speech and a Section 505A on provoking violence on grounds of race, caste, place of birth or residence. The Law Commission made similar recommendations in 2017.

The Monitoring Committee was set up in 2016 on a PIL filed by Karma Dorjee, partly to implement the Bezbaruah report. Law reform has been discussed, but no concrete recommendations have been made so far.

Recent killing in Delhi

The order follows the killing of Vikram Singh Chongtham, a 54-year-old music teacher from Manipur, in Delhi in September. Earlier this year, the court had observed that targeting people for cultural or racial differences is unacceptable.

The matter will next be heard on December 18.