SHILLONG, June 29: Alleging legal infirmities, lack of legislative competence, and constitutional violations, Cabinet Minister and senior BJP leader Sanbor Shullai on Monday urged Governor Chandrashekhar H Vijayashankar to withhold assent to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Trading by Non-Tribals) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which mandates compulsory service licence for every non-tribal employee in trade and businesses.
Shullai met the Governor and submitted a petition to him, expressing concern over the Bill passed by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) recently.
According to Shullai, the Bill severely overreaches the established jurisdiction of the Council and exceeds the specific legislative competence conferred upon Autonomous District Councils under Paragraph 10 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, thus rendering it ultra vires the Constitution of India.
“The original 72-year-old legislation, namely the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Trading by Non-Tribals) Regulation Act, 1954, was enacted to regulate trading by non-tribals and in pursuance whereof, the non-tribal traders till date have been complying with various laws and regulations enacted by both the state government and the District Council,” Shullai said.
He claimed that the KHADC infringed upon areas outside its constitutional mandate by attempting to extend regulatory control from independent traders to corporate/individual employees.
“If this legislation receives assent, it ironically exposes the overall sanctity and authority of the District Council to severe legal vulnerabilities, opening the doors for business institutions to challenge the Council’s executive powers in courts of law. The current Amendment Bill mirrors infirmities by introducing arbitrary regulatory hurdles without proper safeguards or stakeholder consultation,” Shullai said.
He drew the Governor’s attention to Paragraph 12A of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India, which explicitly mandates that if any law enacted by a District Council is inconsistent with a law passed by the State Legislature of Meghalaya, the state law shall prevail, and the District Council’s law shall, to the extent of such repugnancy, be void.
Shullai said the licencing mechanisms of the state government are historically designated to monitor migratory or immigrant labour, and cannot be tools to harass or restrict the livelihood of genuine, permanent non-tribal residents of the state, as doing so would be grossly arbitrary and discriminatory towards them.
According to him, the scope of “Trading by Non-Tribals” cannot be stretched to govern the relationship between employers and employees, even as he added that the proposed Bill is a facial violation of Article 14, Article 19(1)(g) and Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The Bill has been introduced to gain political leverage, ignoring the fact that it fails to pass constitutional scrutiny, he added.
