Imphal: Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM), the apex body of the Thadou Scheduled Tribe in Manipur, has submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Manipur, urging the immediate constitution of a permanent State-Level Scheduled Tribe (ST) Scrutiny Committee as mandated by the Supreme Court of India.
In the memorandum, TIM president M. James Thadou highlighted what he termed serious systemic irregularities in the issuance and verification of ST certificates in Manipur.
He said recent RTI revelations and an NDTV report dated December 24, 2025, exposed instances where several government employees allegedly secured appointments using ST certificates issued under unnotified tribe names such as “Kuki”, “Thadou-Kuki”, “Haokip-Kuki” and “Khongsai-Kuki” — names that do not figure in the state’s official list of 34 recognised Scheduled Tribes.
TIM asserted that Thadou is a distinct, separately notified Scheduled Tribe under Article 342 of the Constitution and not a sub-tribe or synonym of “Kuki”.
The body alleged that the use of hybrid and unlisted tribe names has distorted tribal identity and enabled misuse of reservation benefits under the “Any Kuki Tribes” category, while genuine Thadou community members continue to suffer identity suppression and ethnic misrepresentation amid the ongoing Manipur crisis.
Citing landmark Supreme Court judgments, including Kumari Madhuri Patil vs Additional Commissioner (1994) and State of Maharashtra vs Milind (2000), TIM stressed that appointments secured through invalid ST certificates must be declared invalid.
It said the state has a constitutional obligation to set up a permanent ST Scrutiny Committee to ensure stringent verification of tribal claims.
TIM further urged that once constituted, the State-Level Scrutiny Committee be empowered to function as a time-bound Special Investigation Team (SIT) with the mandate to:
- Identify government employees appointed since 2003 using invalid ST certificates.
- Recommend action, including termination, against those found ineligible.
- Investigate issuing authorities and recruiting departments for negligence.
- Propose robust safeguards and uniform procedures to prevent issuance of ST certificates to non-indigenous persons or foreign nationals.
Reiterating its stand, TIM stated that Thadou is a distinct ethnic group and not part of the Kuki umbrella.
It maintained that any organisation that portrays Thadou as a subset of Kuki stands as illegitimate and does not represent the interests of the Thadou people, as resolved in the Thadou Convention 2024.