SHILLONG, Aug 25: The state government may extend the terms of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council for another six months. The extended terms of both councils will end on September 5.
Sources on Sunday said the District Council Affairs (DCA) Department is likely to place the proposal for extending the terms of the two councils before the Cabinet.
They said the onus is on Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to convene the Cabinet during or after the autumn session of the Assembly to discuss the extension.
The sources said the DCA Department has sent the KHADC (Constitution of District Council) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, and the JHADC (Constitution of District Council) Amendment Bill, 2024, to the Law Department for the delimitation of the constituencies ahead of the council polls. The amendment rules were forwarded on Friday.
“The amendment rules passed by both KHADC and JHADC will be sent to the Governor for approval after it is cleared by the Law Department,” one of the sources said.
The KHADC’s Deputy Chief Executive Member, PN Syiem had defended extending the council’s term by 6-12 months. He said the Sixth Schedule allows the Governor to extend the term for a period not exceeding a year.
“Extending the current term of the House beyond a year will be illegal,” he added.
Syiem also pointed out that Rule 7 of the Assam and Meghalaya Autonomous Districts (Constitution of District Councils) Rules of 1951 states that every district council will continue for five years from its first meeting unless dissolved sooner. At a time, the Governor can extend this period by up to a year through a gazette notification.
He said such extensions happened in the past. “The Garo Hills Autonomous District Council was extended to facilitate the signing of the final peace agreement with the extremist outfits, ANVC and ANVC(B),” he said.
This will be the second extension of the terms of the KHADC and JHADC this year. The government had extended the tenure of the two councils by six months on February 2 this year. The terms of the two councils expired on March 5.
The last elections to the two councils were held in February 2019.
