By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Dorbar Kur Kharkongor- the 7 clans Mylliem has rejected the affidavit issued to the Deb sisters by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court last year claiming their late father’s surname of Kharkongor without the consent of the clan elders.
The claim for the Kharkongor surname by Nana Deb and Mina Deb has been declined by the Kharkongor clan stating that such claims are against the matrilineal practice of the Indigenous community.
“The clan has neither given any No Objection Certificate (NOC) nor letter of consent to the two sisters for changing their surname to Kharkongor”, Myntri of the Dorbar Kharkongor Thester Kharkongor told reporters here on Thursday.
Thester also stated that the clan will not at all welcome the affidavit while demanding the CJM to squash the affidavit and declare it as null and void as such claims is likely to jeopardize the family ties.
The elders of the Dorbar Kharkongor have claimed that the Deb sisters of Madanriting had filed for an affidavit to change their surname to Kharkongor after their father, Praksi Kharkongor died.
“The two sisters have hesitated to claim the surname of their father while he was still alive but soon after his death, they wanted the surname of Kharkongor and this is something very suspicious”, Thester said.
Claiming that this is one tactics to enable the non-tribals to cast their votes during the elections, the Dorbar Clan has also demanded the state government to prevent from registering names of non-tribals in the electoral roll.
They also informed that they met the deputy commissioner of East Khasi Hills last year to apprise him of the issue but the DC has refused issuing the said affidavits to the Deb sisters stating that the affidavit was issued by the CJM court.
After their meeting with the CJM judge this month, they mentioned that the judge has assured that they will look into the matter and sort it out with the judges who issued the affidavit.
When apprised on the available law allowing a person to change his/her surname to their father’s, general secretary of the Dorbar Clan Tenlyson Kharkongor said, “The government may allow but we will not allow at any cost”.
He informed that in their clan, when a person wants to change his/her surname to their father’s, they would have to go through various procedures affiliated to their clan.
“We usually don’t allow anyone to change their surname directly to Kharkongor”, Tenlyson said.
Stressing on the matrilineal practice in the state, Tenlyson said taking a mother’s surname is a deep rooted practice in the state. “We will not allow such issue to tarnish the title of Kharkongor or any other clan for that matter”, the general secretary said.
Meanwhile, the Dorbar Kur Kharkongor has also urged other Khasi clans to keep a check on such claims to protect and preserve the traditional practice of the indigenous communities of the state.