Supreme Court lifts Meghalaya High Court stay on MoU demarcating Assam-Meghalaya boundary

The Supreme Court on Friday lifted the stay imposed by Meghalaya High Court on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Assam and Meghalaya with respect to demarcation of physical land boundaries between the two States. (State of Meghalaya vs R Hamberly Wahlang and ors).A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala issued notice to the respondents in the appeal filed by State of Meghalaya and listed the case for further hearing after two weeks. "Prima facie, the single-judge has not furnished any reason for the interim order, and whether the MoUs will require parliamentary approval is a distinct issue. But the interim order staying the MoU was not warranted. Thus, the interim order of the single-judge is hereby stayed," the Court ordered. .The State governments had signed the MoU in March 2022 towards resolving their border dispute in six areas. The resolution process had begun in July 2021 and the agreement saw both States concede land in the areas of conflict..The Meghalaya High Court had, in December, stayed the physical demarcation and erection of posts pursuant to the land-boundary agreement.This was on a petition filed by certain individuals. The case of the petitioners before the High Court was that concession of territory by Meghalaya, which involved a lot of tribal land and villages, was done without consulting the constitutionally-constituted autonomous bodies.This, it was argued, was a violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioner and tribal people, as also of the sixth schedule of the Constitution that spells out the role of autonomous councils in the northeast.Accordingly, the MoU was sought to be set aside, and it was prayed that the States be directed to follow the sixth schedule in letter and spirit before any such exchange of land planned in future.The counsel for petitioner before the High Court had submitted that in the event demarcations are effected physically, with boundary marks being placed on the ground pursuant to the MoU, the petition would be rendered infructuous and those affected left remediless.The counsel for the State government had argued that no interim orders were called for since the locus of the petitioner has not been established and no 'irreparable loss' would ensue if the agreement is taken ahead.A single-judge of the High Court after hearing the parties had stayed the MoU prompting Meghalaya government to move the top court, which a division bench refused to interfere with. .The appeal filed by Meghalaya was taken on board by the Supreme Court today after a mentioning was made by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta seeking urgent listing of the matter. "What? The High Court stayed an MoU? Please call the files we will take it up after mentioning," CJI Chandrachud had remarked. At the hearing that began at 2 pm today, the SG submitted that when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam, some boundary issues had to be decided politically.Advocate Pragyan Pradip Sharma, appearing for the respondent (petitioners before the High Court), argued that the agreement did not have parliament's sanction, and tribal land would be converted to those for non-tribal people. Advocate Shuvodeep Roy, appearing for the State of Assam, submitted that the MoU was arrived at after mutual agreement between the States. "Like claim for Tarabari area will be with Meghalaya and some other area will continue to be with Assam. So boundaries are just recognised, which was not recognised till earlier. Boundaries are not changed but only demarcated. These villages were not receiving development benefits as they belong to neither Assam or Meghalaya," he submitted. Sharma then said, "There are attacks on villagers of Assam due to the boundary disputes. State of Assam supports the stand of SG Mehta."The bench after hearing the parties proceeded to stay the High Court order.The matter will be heard again after two weeks.[Follow our coverage of today's developments in the matter].[Read order]