SHILLONG: The petitioners, who are following up the ST status case of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, have decided to file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court next week against the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for not completing the inquiry into the pending case.
The order is a setback to the respondents, including the chief minister, as they wanted the Supreme Court to close the case at the earliest since the next Assembly elections are round the corner.
On January 20, 2014, the Supreme Court had asked NCST to dispose of the investigation related to the ST status case of the chief minister within eight weeks, which, however, was not complied with.
The fresh petitions filed by activist Tennydard Marak and the North East Indigenous Garo Law Promoters Association were admitted by the Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta on Monday.
The Supreme Court overruled all the objections and plea for dismissal of the case by the respondents.
During the hearing, on behalf of the petitioners, senior advocate Basava Prabhu S. Patil, assisted by advocate Manish Goswami, brought to the notice of the court the non-compliance of its order by NCST.
The court said the petitioners can file contempt proceedings against NCST.
Earlier on November 14, 2013, the petitioners had made a representation before the chairperson of NCST to cause any inquiry into the case. Later, during the hearing of the case in 2014, the Supreme Court had set a deadline of eight weeks to complete the probe.
The respondents were represented by senior advocates PP Rao, Kapil Sibal, Upamanyu Hazarika, Meghalaya Advocate General BP Todi and government advocate Ranjan Mukherjee.
