SHILLONG: The political activist, Tennydard Marak, who is pursuing the pending ST status case of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, said that the voters should give a befitting reply to Sangma for the alleged misuse of ST certificate.
According to Marak, the chief minister is planning to contest from two seats with the ST certificate which was obtained allegedly in a fraudulent manner and hence, the people should be the best judges during the polls.
Marak is fighting the case for almost five years in the Supreme Court and the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes citing that Sangma is not a Garo as he was born of a Garo father and non indigenous Muslim mother contrary to the customary practices including matrilineal tradition.
In a statement on Monday , Marak said that on January 19, the Supreme Court refused to allow a woman to take the benefit of reservation just because she was married to a man who belonged to the Scheduled Caste, asserting that caste is determined by birth and not by marriage.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar of Supreme Court in Para 5 of the judgment stated, “There cannot be any dispute that the caste is determined by birth and the caste cannot be changed by marriage with a person of scheduled caste.”
According to Marak, this applies to the chief minister and his brother Zenith Sangma, who is a Cabinet Minister.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court of India reiterated the guiding principle that no person who was not a Scheduled Tribe by birth will be deemed to be a member of Scheduled Tribe merely because he or she has married a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe as per the guiding principal of National Commission of Scheduled Tribes .
In this context, the ST Status claim of chief minister has no base and the certificate deserves to be confiscated with immediate effect, Marak said.
“The admitted fact is that Rousanara Begum, mother of chief minister, is the daughter of late Amiruddin Ali Ahmed, an Advocate in Nagaon District Court in Assam and a Muslim by birth. Therefore, neither she can claim the status of Scheduled Tribe just by virtue of her marriage or her children”, Marak said.
The petitioner said that the next date for the ST status case has been scheduled on February 2, but it is not sure whether the matter will figure in the final list for that day or not.
“There is no need of any further enquiry as the material fact as well as the admitted fact is itself sufficient for confiscating and cancelling the ST status of Mukul Sangma. I am sure that the concerned authorities will initiate steps to cancel the ST certificate issued wrongly to Sangma and his siblings”, Marak said.
