Key Takeaways
- The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of a viral video showing gender violence in Manipur.
- The Chief Justice Dhananjaya Chadrachud ordered state and central governments to report corrective actions within a week.
- The incident highlights escalating human‑rights violations against women during communal clashes.
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of the “deeply disturbing” viral video from Manipur, where two women are seen being molested and paraded naked.
“Use of women as an instrument of violence in a charged atmosphere is completely unacceptable,” a bench of the Supreme Court said.
Headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr. Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud, the court granted one week to the state and Central governments to provide details on the steps taken.
This directive emphasizes the urgency of addressing the violations.
The CJI said, “The government should really step in and take action. It’s simply unacceptable. It’s deeply disturbing. Grossest of constitutional and human rights violations.”
The CJI led bench, which was aghast, asked the Union and Manipur governments to inform by July 28, as to “what steps were taken to bring the perpetrators to book and what steps were taken to prevent such incidents in future.”
The CJI Dr Chadrachud, said, “The video may be from the month of May, but that does not make any difference”.
The CJI went on to observe that using women as an instrument in a communal clash situation to perpetrate gender violence is ‘very, very deeply concerning” to the Supreme Court.
