Fine of Rs 5,000 each imposed on seven petitioners
SHILLONG: The High Court of Meghalaya has disposed of a petition against the recent order of KHADC prohibiting hawking by non-tribals without valid trading license.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the seven petitioners.
The reason for disposing of the case by Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal was that the petitioners were tribals whereas the trading license was meant for non-tribals.
The petition was filed by Julia Warjri and others against Meghalaya government and KHADC.
The court said the petitioners are the tribals and have approached it under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenging the public notice issued on October 4 whereby the Secretary to the Executive Committee, KHADC under the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District (Trading by Non-Tribals) Regulation, 1954 as amended and the Rules framed thereunder, has prohibited the non-tribals from carrying out any trade or business without a valid license issued by the KHADC.
The additional advocate general ND Chullai and senior counsel VGK Kynta, who appeared on behalf of State and KHADC respectively, submitted that since the petitioners are the tribals, the notification is not applicable to them and the petitioners have approached the court with malicious/ulterior motive.
They further urged that there is no cause of action for them to file the writ petition.
The counsel for the petitioners was unable to satisfy the court as to the nature of grievance of the petitioners who are tribals whereas the non-tribals have been directed to obtain trading license.
After hearing the counsels for the parties, the chief justice observed he found force in the submissions of the counsels for the respondents.
“ The petitioners who are the tribals have not shown any cause of grievance to them and in fact, have misused and abused the process of this court”, the chief justice said.
Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed with cost of Rs 5000 each to be paid by each of the petitioners separately to the District Council within two weeks for frivolous invoking of the writ jurisdiction, the order said.