The appeal filed by Meghalaya was taken on board by the Supreme Court today after a mentioning was made by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta seeking urgent listing of the matter.
“What? The High Court stayed an MoU? Please call the files we will take it up after mentioning,” CJI Chandrachud had remarked.
At the hearing that began at 2 pm today, the SG submitted that when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam, some boundary issues had to be decided politically.
Advocate Pragyan Pradip Sharma, appearing for the respondent (petitioners before High Court), argued that the agreement did not have parliament’s sanction, and tribal land would be converted to those for non-tribal people.
Advocate Shuvodeep Roy, appearing for the State of Assam, submitted that the MoU was arrived at after mutual agreement between the States.
“Like claim for Tarabari area will be with Meghalaya and some other area will continue to be with Assam. So boundaries are just recognised, which was not recognised till earlier. Boundaries are not changed but only demarcated. These villages were not receiving development benefits as they belong to neither Assam or Meghalaya,” he submitted.
Sharma then said,
“There are attacks on villagers of Assam due to the boundary disputes. State of Assam supports the stand of SG Mehta.“
The bench after hearing the parties proceeded to stay the High Court order.
The matter will be heard again after two weeks.
[Follow our coverage of today’s developments in the matter]
Source: Barandbench
