Why panel to look into 'racial discrimination' faced by northeastern people met only 3 times: SC asks Centre

The Supreme Court has termed it unfortunate that a three-member committee, set up for protection of the rights of people from northeastern states residing in different parts of the country, has met just three times since it was set up in March this year.

A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta said that the committee should have met at least once every month.

The bench asked the Central Government to file an affidavit giving reason for the committee not meeting as frequently as it should have.

"The Committee has been constituted in terms of order dated December 14, 2016. However, the Committee was constituted only on March 16, 2018 after a gap of more than one year. We have been told by the counsel appearing for the Union of India that the Committee instead of meeting preferably every month had met only three times till date. This is unfortunate," the bench said.

The apex court order came while hearing a plea initiated after a student from Arunachal Pradesh Nido Tania had died in Delhi few years back.

The court had ordered constitution of the committee in December 2016 saying it would be given powers for ensuring strict action in incidents of racial discrimination, racial atrocities and racial violence and suggesting measures to curb such hate and racial crimes.

The top court was informed that the Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted the committee in March 2018.

An aggrieved person can send their complaints and suggestions on issues like racial abuse, racial atrocities, racial violence, racial discrimination even by email on an ID created for this purpose.

The court now posted the matter for hearing on November 29.