Assam: Gauhati HC closes PIL against Notification on Protected list of Sadiya Tribal Belt

Inclusion of Moran, Matak, Ahom, Chutia, and Gorkha communities in list stands

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice N. Unni Krishna Nair closed the PIL (66/2021) that challenged a notification issued on July 20, 2021, by the Government of Assam towards including some communities in the list of protected classes in Sadiya Tribal Belt. The bench closed PIL on the ground of devoid of merit.

The challenge in the PIL is a notification issued on July 20, 2021, by the Revenue (Settlement & Disaster Management Department), Assam, towards including the communities mentioned therein in the list of protected classes of persons in the Sadiya Tribal Belt, in exercise of powers conferred by Regulation 160(2) of Chapter X of the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation, 1886(as amended).

The petitioners, herein, have projected themselves to belong to the indigenous Scheduled Tribes of the district of Tinsukia and have proceeded to institute the PIL on behalf of the Scheduled Tribes and original backward classes of Sadiya Tribal Belt.

The projection made in the petition is that "the notification dated July 20, 2021, came to be issued without the State Government drawing the requisite satisfaction under Regulation 160(1) of Chapter X of the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation, 1886 (as amended), that the communities involved, on account of their primitive condition and lack of education or material advantages, are incapable of looking after their welfare, insofar as such welfare depends upon their having sufficient land for their maintenance."

The Additional Advocate General, Assam, has submitted that the provisions of Chapter X of the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation, 1886 (as amended), were so incorporated in the said Regulation of 1886, with the objective to enable the State Government to specify the backward classes and constitute compact areas as protected belts and blocks. It is submitted that the communities concerned, on being so included in the protected list, would be entitled to special protection measures like settlement of government land and rights of settlement holders and land holders.

The Additional Advocate General, Assam, has also submitted that the notification, dated July 20, 2021, was issued after a due exercise was carried out by the respondent authorities in the matter to ascertain as to whether the communities so included vide the said notification, in the list of protected classes in Sadiya Tribal Belt, were actually required to be so included. The projection made in this PIL petition is that the notification, dated July 20, 2021, came to be issued without the State Government drawing the requisite satisfaction under Regulation 160(1) of Chapter X of the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation, 1886 (as amended), that the communities involved, on account of their primitive condition and lack of education or material advantages, are incapable of looking after their welfare, insofar as such welfare depends upon their having sufficient land for their maintenance.

The Additional Advocate General has submitted that the matter was first considered by a Cabinet Sub-Committee. The said committee had carried out a detailed examination as regards the living conditions and suffering of the communities so mentioned in the said notification issued on July 20, 2021. However, since the matter could not be finalised, the Revenue & Disaster Management Department, Assam, was entrusted to examine the issues involved in the month of June 2021. On conclusion of the examination of the issue as mentioned hereinabove, a Cabinet Memorandum was prepared considering the materials brought on record. Thereafter, the Cabinet, after considering the deliberations made by the Cabinet Sub-Committee as well as the materials coming on record in the examination as carried out in the matter by the Revenue & Disaster Management Department and after a thorough deliberation of the issues so arising, in its meeting held on July 15, 2021, approved the proposal for inclusion of Moran, Matak, Ahom, Chutia, and Gorkha communities in the list of protected classes of persons residing in the Sadiya Tribal Belt. Thereafter, the notification of July 20, 2021, was so issued by the Revenue & Disaster Management Department, Assam.

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