Not a squeak was heard from coal mine owners all these years when coal mine labourers died inside the mines. There was no talk of compensation to the next of kin of the deceased. There is no such thing as owners’ liability for using unsafe mining practices. Coal mining became a private wealth generating venture. The coal mine owners are the richest people in Jaintia Hills. Now suddenly everyone is making a human rights issue of the coal ban. The coal mine owners have mobilised public opinion and perhaps induced them to attend the protest marches. The NGT has been painted as a piece of ruling that is anti-tribal and goes against the spirit of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. In the heated arguments about the NGT ban we have forgotten that the Sixth Schedule is not a stand-alone instrument but is subservient to the other fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. Nowhere is it mentioned in the Sixth Schedule that land and all the resources under the earth also belongs to private individuals or communities from the tribal community and that they have the sole right to extract the resources without any let or hindrance.
This is a wrong interpretation of the Sixth Schedule and this misinterpretation persists because no one has so far challenged the Sixth Schedule in a court of law. At the moment even the Trading By Non-Tribals Act which is part of the Sixth Schedule is being interpreted arbitrarily. Every non-tribal including journalists are now brought under the umbrella of labourers and should have a trading license even if they are permanent residents of Meghalaya with their EPIC card in hand. If a permanent resident is considered to be at par with a new migrant then where is the justice? Does this mean that a permanent non-tribal resident of Meghalaya enjoys no rights at all? Or that those rights are now curtailed by the Sixth Schedule? Who has interpreted this controversial clause and given it the cloak of respectability? The Sixth Schedule needs to be revisited and re-configured. We cannot have Articles and Schedules in the Constitution that that defy the norms of justice.
