Pleas for restoring Internet to be heard in chambers: Manipur High Court
The Hindu
The Manipur High Court on July 6 directed that it will hear a batch of petitions seeking the restoration of internet access in Manipur in chambers, just hours after the Supreme Court refrained from intervening in a separate plea challenging the internet restrictions in the State.Manipur
The Manipur High Court on Thursday directed that it will hear a batch of petitions seeking the restoration of Internet access in Manipur in chambers, just hours after the Supreme Court refrained from intervening in a separate plea challenging the Internet restrictions in the State. The High Court scheduled the in-chamber hearing for July 7, which will not be open to the public.
While an expert panel constituted by the court asked for one more week to submit its report, representatives of Internet service providers on the panel told the court it was not feasible to block virtual private networks (VPNs) in a bid to restore limited internet in the State.
A Bench of the Acting Chief Justice M.V. Muralidharan and Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh was hearing the batch of petitions seeking Internet access on Thursday, though the case was originally listed before a Bench of Justice A. Bimol Singh and A. Guneshwar Sharma.
Acting Chief Justice Muralidharan is the same judge who authored the March 27 order on ST status for Meiteis, which is said to be the immediate trigger for the ethnic conflict underway for two months in Manipur.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, while refraining from hearing the separate petition, said that the Supreme Court Collegium has recommended a new Chief Justice for the Manipur High Court, and that the judge would be in the saddle very soon.
Delhi High Court judge, Justice Siddharth Mridul, was proposed by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment as Manipur Chief Justice on July 5.
The separate petition before the top court was challenging the “mechanical and repeated shutdown” of Internet services in Manipur.
The Opposition Congress demanded that the government open the Gandhi Vatika Museum, depicting Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and freedom struggle, built at a cost of ₹85 crore in Jaipur’s Central Park last year, during the Congress-led regime in Rajasthan. The museum has not been opened to the public, reportedly because of the administration’s engagements with the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.