by Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : The Supreme Court has agreed to reconstitute a bench for hearing a case relating to extra-judicial killings in Manipur. The order from a bench headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi came on Thursday after senior advocate Collin Gonsalves informed the court that the matter had not been heard since the retirement of Justice Madan B Lokur in December last year.Advocate Gonsalves told the bench that the matter was being heard earlier by a bench of Justices Lokur and UU Lalit. The bench assured him that it will try to reconstitute the bench.Gonsalves, representing some of the petitioners in the matter, told the court that he had mentioned the issue before a bench of Justice Lalit, who directed him to mention it before the Chief Justice. The matter relates to an investigation by a SIT set up by the CBI director to inquire into the allegation of fake encounters by security forces including personnel of Manipur Police in the course of counter-insurgency operations. The court has been hearing the main case which was a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur. On July 14, 2017, the apex court set up a Special Investigation Team comprising CBI officers and ordered registration of FIRs and investigation into the alleged killings.