TURA: A host of Garo student and social organizations have met with the Chief Executive Member of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council demanding the removal of the standing counsel and appointment of a local advocate to deal with the rising number of cases pertaining to tribal affairs in the region.Leaders of the Garo Students’ Union led by it’s interim president Zikku Balgra Marak, All A’chik Youth Welfare Society, Garoland State Movement Committee and the East Zone GSU called on CEM Dipul Marak to submit a petition demanding the removal of the current standing counsel based in Shillong, Sujit Dey, and the appointment of a tribal lawyer in his place.These organizations state that given the role the district council plays in protecting and advancing the interests of the tribal people under the 6th Schedule it is necessary for the autonomous body to have a tribal legal counsel.”A majority of cases in the council are related to disputes in appointment of Nokmas and boundaries of clan land and who better to deal with these than a tribal lawyer who knows the tribal laws,” stated the organizations.Dozens of cases relating to nokmaship, in which there is more than one claiming custodian of the clan lands, and boundary disputes where in one clan accuses the other of encroaching into their area are regular legal cases that need urgent attention in the GHADC.In their memo to the CEM, these organizations also point out that it has been more than ten long years that Sujit Dey was made the GHADC standing counsel in the Meghalaya High Court and complaints have been raised against him that he has allegedly been indulging in private practice by taking up land dispute cases for himself when he ought to have been fighting it as the GHADC counsel.They are now demanding that local lawyers,who are already practising in the high court, replace him.”Earlier there were hardly a handful of tribal lawyers in the high court, but now we are seeing a large number of them, having passed LLM degrees, successfully fighting cases. Some of then have already completed six years of practise in the High Court,” mention the organizations while justifying their demand for a tribal counsel.They also cite the example of the two other district councils in the state, namely the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills autonomous councils, where tribal lawyers are the standing counsels.Reiterating their opposition to any further extension to the current legal counsel, the conglomerate of Garo bodies warn that they will not allow Dey to remain in the council post any further and call upon the authorities to appoint a new tribal advocate at the earliest.
