Mukul’s ST status issue
SHILLONG: The State Level Scrutiny Committee (SLSC) which was constituted by the State Government to probe into the tribal status of Dr Mukul Sangma has given the petitioner Tenydard M Marak 15 days to file his submission before the committee.
During the hearing held on Monday, Marak, a member of All North East Indigenous Garo Law Promoters Association (ANEIGLPA), which filed the case on the ST status of the Chief Minister, sought time for filing his submission.
“We have decided to give the petitioner 15 days’ time to submit his papers before the committee. The committee would fix the next hearing after studying the papers submitted by the petitioner,” SLSC chairman T Dkhar said after the hearing.
Informing that they had also summoned the other party, he said that it was only the petitioner who had turned up for the hearing.
Earlier, the committee had issued a show cause notice against the petitioners who had questioned the status of Dr Sangma as a scheduled tribe.
Questioned were being raised over the decision of the committee to show cause the complainant since they should have summoned the Chief Minister, who tribal status was under question.
According to the petitioners, the merit of the case was that the Chief Minister did not belong to ST by birth.
The Supreme Court on January 20 gave eight weeks to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe to make clear the ST status of Chief Minister. The deadline in this regard expired recently. But, the SLSC had been formed by the social welfare department on its own initiative.
The other members of SLSC include Law secretary LM Sangma, social welfare and DIPR department official HM Shangpliang and NEHU Anthropology Head Dr R Khongsni.
Under secretary to social welfare department M. Chyne said that the matter would be expedited by SLSC on a regular basis without adjournment so that the report could be sent to National Commission for Scheduled Tribe to be submitted before the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the apex court on January last had directed the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to verify and dispose of the case related to the ST status of Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma within eight weeks.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, while hearing a PIL challenging the ST status of Dr Sangma, refused to go into the issue and said that the matter be decided by the Commission.
The apex court asked the commission to look into the complaint and take a decision within eight weeks on ‘merit’, Ranjan Mukherjee, state’s senior counsel, had informed.
A PIL was filed by Marak seeking the court’s direction to hold inquiry into the ST status of Sangma and cancellation of the certificate issued to him on June 23, 1982. The association in its petition alleged that the Chief Minister does not belong to the ‘Sangma’ clan, and that he had used his surname only to obtain a Scheduled Tribe certificate.
The NGO moved the apex court after its similar plea was rejected by the Meghalaya High Court on October 7 last year.
Dr Sangma, who is in his second term as chief minister, is a five-time legislator from Ampatigiri assembly constituency in South West Garo Hills since 1993.
The All North East Indigenous Garo Law Promoters Association said that petitioners who had questioned the ST status of the Chief Minister were not by any means liable to face any trial.
Association secretary Edbirth D Shira said the committee should have summoned Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma and his brother Zenith Sangma instead of issuing notice to the petitioners.