SHILLONG, Sep 7: The state Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the notification of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, and the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), 1908, making them applicable in the tribal areas of the state.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the state government went ahead after discussing with and clarifying the concerns of the autonomous district councils (ADCs).
“In pursuance of the full separation of judiciary from the executive and in the exercise of the power conferred in the proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the CrPC, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), the Governor of Meghalaya is pleased to apply the provisions of the CPC, 1973, to the courts in Meghalaya. The district council courts shall continue to derive powers under paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India,” he read out.
The Chief Minister said the Governor of Meghalaya further directed, notwithstanding such applications, that all actions taken by the district courts throughout the state under the Rules for the Administration of Justice and Police in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, 1937, and the Rules of Administration of Justice and Police in Garo Hills, 1937, shall be deemed to have been taken under the relevant provisions of the CPC, 1973.
Relevant changes have similarly been made in the CPC of 1908, he said.
Sangma said there is no longer any doubt that the application of CrPC and CPC would take away the powers of the district council courts.
He pointed out that paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Sixth Schedule clearly say that the powers conferred by Parliament cannot be simply removed at the cabinet level and there is no question of the powers of the district councils being diluted.
The Chief Minister said the ADCs exercise their power and take up cases at the district level. But without any ADC judiciary, the judicial magistrates were not being able to draw their power from any particular law or source.
“They had to be given that power,” he said, adding that the magistrates will continue to do what the ADC judiciary did earlier.
