'Taking things lightly': SC pulls up Centre on North East discrimination

The Supreme Court criticised the Centre for its lax approach to handling discrimination against people from the North East. The court flagged the government's failure to hold regular meetings of a monitoring committee meant to address such issues.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Centre for "taking things lightly" as it flagged continuing discrimination faced by people from the north east region residing across the country.

Court Slams Centre Over Irregular Meetings

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran questioned the Central government for failing to convene meetings of a court-mandated monitoring committee every three months to address issues faced by people from north east. The bench said, "We are not going to close this. Despite us keeping this matter pending, you (Centre) were taking things very lightly.... There is no doubt about it. After 15 December, you didn't hold a meeting till we asked you to hold one. You Union were supposed to hold it every three months."

It noted that pursuant to its February 17 order, a meeting of the committee was held on March 15, however, the minutes did not indicate the next proposed date of meeting. Adjourning the matter, the bench asked the committee to take forward the issues discussed in the March 15 meeting and posted the matter for hearing before it on July 15.

'We Are Still Indians': Justice Highlights Pervasive Bias

The bench also called for greater sensitivity towards discrimination faced by people from the north east.

Justice Kumar said, "A video is currently doing the rounds on WhatsApp. I was in Manipur and have many friends there... The song in the video says, call us Nepali, call us 'chinkis', but we are still Indians."

The top court was hearing a plea relating to the welfare of people from north-east India residing in different parts of the country. Earlier, it had directed the monitoring committee to address incidents of racial discrimination and to meet every three months. (ANI)

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