From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: The hearing of contentious case questioning the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and others was adjourned on Friday till May 1.
The case came up for hearing before the division bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit on Friday.
The bench heard the arguments of the petitioner regarding the role of the National Schedule Tribe Commission, which was earlier asked to look into the case on merit.
Due to lack of time, the Bench could not complete the hearing and fixed May 1 as the next date of hearing.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Meghalaya Government and seven others in the case related to the ST status of the Chief Minister.
The others who received summon notices of the apex court are the Union Government, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the Election Commissions of India, the Scrutiny Committee, the Chief Minister himself besides his Minister brother Zenith and sister Tripti Rani.
The petitioner was represented by senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan.
The state Government was represented by Ranjan Mukherjee and the defendant by senior lawyer Atul Chitale.
The apex court on January 20 last year had requested the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to verify and dispose off the case related to the ST status of Chief Minister within eight weeks on merit and in accordance with the law.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by All Northeast Indigenous Garo Law Promoters Association and Tennydard M Marak seeking its direction to hold inquiry into the ST status of Sangma and cancellation of the certificate issued to him on June 23, 1982.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium appeared on behalf of Mukul Sangma, while his brother was represented by former HRD minister Kapil Sibal.
