Supreme Court extends tenure of Justice Gita Mittal led panel overseeing Manipur relief till July 31

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended till July 31 the tenure of the apex court-appointed Justice Gita Mittal committee set up to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the people affected by ethnic violence in Manipur.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order on being informed that its tenure ended in July last year.

It was submitted that the panel has so far submitted 42 reports to the apex court on various aspects related to the rehabilitation of the victims.

"Since no formal extension was granted since July 2025, the continuation of the committee shall be regularised and is granted time till July 31, 2026," the bench said.

On August 7, 2023, the top court had ordered the setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims and compensation to them, besides asking former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the probe in criminal cases. The committee was authorised to submit its reports directly to the top court, which is monitoring the cases related to ethnic strife.

The panel, headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal, included Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi High Court. The three-member panel was constituted days after the apex court had termed as "deeply disturbing" the video of women being paraded naked in the state.

Over 260 people were killed and thousands displaced since the ethnic violence broke out between the Imphal valley-based Meitei and neighbouring hills-based Kuki communities in May 2023.

The clashes began after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against an order of the Manipur High Court on the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.