High court reserves order on AMTU appeal on ST judgement
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, October 09 2023:
The High Court of Manipur has reserved its order on the application filed by All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU) seeking a leave to file a third party appeal against its March 27 order regarding recommendation of Scheduled Tribe status to Meetei/Meitei community.
A division bench of the high court comprising of justices Ahanthem Bimol Singh and A Guneshwar Sharma concluded the hearing of the application filed by AMTU on October 5 .
The AMTU application sought a leave to appeal the high court order arguing that the tribal body, despite being a concerned entity, was not made a party to the initial PIL and that the March 27 order was passed without hearing them.
It also argued that the court had passed the impugned order without applying the necessary tests.
Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for AMTU, had argued that the Meetei/Meiteis' plea for ST status was missing basic ingredient to qualify as an ST and further submitted that the community had always been relatively forward compared to STs of the state.
In its submission, state government argued that Union government is not a party to the case and the March 27 order had no locus standi to go for appeal.
Apart from reserving the order, the court did not specify the exact date for pronouncing the same but fixed the next hearing on January 3, 2024 .