The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Manipur government and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) to obtain instructions in a petition by the Manipur-based Kuki Students’ Organisation seeking that Churuchandpur be reinstated as a venue for government recruitment examinations for the remaining academic year.
The bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela took up the matter and kept it for consideration on October 16. The petitioner-organisation, represented by advocate Rudrajit Ghosh, submitted that Churachandpur had been a venue for exams conducted by SSC for decades and had continued to be a venue for other Central government-conducted recruitment exams even after the ethnic violence commenced last year, but SSC has now “arbitrarily and whimsically” removed Churachandpur as an examination venue from its web portals for the upcoming examinations scheduled in the present academic year as well as the forthcoming academic year.
With the removal of Churachandpur as a venue, the petition submits that “over 500 candidates from the Kuki-Zo tribal communities are left with only one examination centre within their state” in Imphal, as a result of which those who had earlier opted for Churachandpur as their test venue “are now compelled to travel over 300 kilometres of treacherous mountain terrain to Aizawl, Mizoram”.
SSC issued a notice on its website on September 4 stating that the Combined Graduate Level Examination (Tier-1) 2024 will not be conducted in Churachandpur and Ukhrul “due to the prevailing law and order situation in Manipur.” The petition, however, goes on to highlight that exams were being conducted with Churachandpur as a centre until July this year.
Apart from seeking reinstatement of Churachandpur as an exam venue, the petitioner-organisation is alternatively also seeking that the authorities, including SSC, make necessary arrangements “to enable tribal students residing in the hill districts of Manipur to travel out-of-state to Aizawl” to write their exams.
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