Meghalaya Cabinet to pass ordinance on village chief's role

Taking cognisance of the importance of empowering traditional village chiefs in Meghalaya, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said his cabinet will pass an ordinance on May 11 before the same could be taken up by the state legislature.
The ordinance was necessitated after Meghalaya High Court struck down the powers of the traditional village chiefs to issue NOCs and also their involvement in the developmental processes in the absence of any legislation.
"To ensure involvement of traditional institutions/heads in matters of development programmes, we will have to seek the mandate of the state legislature to give a legislative mandate to ensure their involvement," the Chief Minister told reporters after an all party meeting here.

"Since the House is not in session, we have decided to work on an ordinance which will again be re-examined by the Cabinet on Monday," he said.
Allaying fears that the ordinance will dilute the powers of the autonomous tribal councils in the state, the Chief Minister said, "What we are working on is complete legislative responsibility in respect of creating a legal mandate for involvement of the traditional heads, Rangbah Shnongs."
"We are not working on the basis of customary laws and practices, appointment of traditional heads," he said.
According to the Chief Minister, the ordinance will give complete clarity on what exactly the mandate and jurisdiction of the legislature entailed and also the three ADCs.

The High Court had in December last year, observed that a village/locality headman did not derive any right from law, and rule or from the Constitution of India to issue NOC for the purpose of birth/death or for registration of any document as well as for building permission and obtaining loan.