SHILLONG, JAN 19: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) urged the KHADC and JHADC to appeal for a ‘stay’ to the Meghalaya high court recent ruling prohibiting the headmen from issuing No Objection Certificate-NOC- which seen as a blow to the traditional system in the state.
“We urged the two ADCs to appeal to the division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya for a stay against the recent ruling, which was passed by a single bench,” HYC general secretary Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters at a news conference on Monday.
He said, the proposed stay order is to ensure that the blanket ruling on the traditional heads in the state is not effective.
On December 10 last year the Meghalaya high court issued an order directing the state government not to indulge or ask people to obtain NOC from headmen and instead function and discharge their duties independently as per rules and laws.
According to him, as per article 13, clause 2, of the Indian Constitution it has clearly defined that ‘Law’ also includes – by-laws, ordinances and ‘customs and usages’.
“But we don’t know whether the court has examine this article 13 of the Indian Constitution or not when it passed the order,” Kharjahrin said while pointing out that to their understanding whether there is a codified law or not, the headmen is already empower as per traditional customs and usages.
At the same time, Kharjarin urged the standing counsels of both the ADCs – Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) to properly present the case related to the issue.
Admitting the there are instances where headmen are misusing and abusing their powers, Kharjahrin said, “We have also come across cases where NOCs are being rampantly issued to non-indigenous for carrying out businesses by these headmen which is more or less equal to ostracizing the tribal community of their livelihood.”
Having said this, Kharjarin however said, “Not all headmen can be tag with the same label and to issue a blanket ruling is not a solution to the problem.”
HYC president Peter Lawai said the council also urged all the traditional chiefs including the headmen and Syiems of the Khasi –Jaintia hills region to also come forward to appeal to the court .
He said, the recent ruling of the court has affected the traditional heads adding if the power to issue any kind of certificates is being taken away from the headmen, the people will suffer as they have to travel from rural areas to the state capital just to get a certificate.
According to him, this will also affect the efforts to tackle the problem of influx entering the state besides hampering the developmental schemes of the government.
Meanwhile, the HYC lambasted the autonomous district councils for their failure to legislate laws, which has put all those who are part of the traditional system into the present situation.
“The recent ruling of the court is also a clear indication of the failure of the ADCs which even though existed since 1952 and has had hundreds of MDCs where executive committees come and go, but they have sidelined a very important issue relating to legislating the required laws,” Kharjahrin said.
He also said that main reason behind headmen misusing their powers is due to the absence of specific laws.
“We therefore, demanded the two ADCs to immediately come up with specific laws which will clearly define the powers and functions of the headmen and further strengthen the administrative functioning of the dorbar shnongs as a whole,” he said.
The HYC also demanded that the District Council Affairs (DCA) department of the state government to speed up the process of approving the Khasi Hills District (Village Administrative) Bill, 2014 passed by the KHADC and getting the assent of the Governor.
“We also demand the DCA minister HDR Lyngdoh, who is also an MDC in the KHADC to take up the matter seriously and ensure that the bill gets the assent of the Governor at the earliest,” Kharjahrin said.
He however questioned the minister as he is a member of KHADC as to why he had failed to raise this issue when he is very much part of the recent all party meeting of the KHADC.
“If the DCA is saying that the bill still lagging, it should have return it back to KHADC for further fine tuning rather than keeping in cold storage for the past seven to eight months now,” Kharjahrim said adding this is nothing but absent of political commitment to safeguard the interest of the indigenous people and their land.- By Our Reporter
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