Shillong, Dec 8: The High Court of Meghalaya has ordered that there should not be any physical demarcation or erection of boundary posts on the ground in Assam-Meghalaya border till February 6.
In response to a PIL to stay the border agreement MoU on March 29 this year , the court wanted the Advocate General to file an affidavit in objection to the plea of the petitioners.
“It is however understood that during the intervening period, no physical demarcation or erection of boundary posts on the ground,
pursuant to the MoU dated 29.03.2022 shall be carried out, till the next date”, the court said.
The next hearing is on February 6 next year.
The case was filed by four writ petitioners who are stated to be the traditional heads of the Khasi Syiemship and Sirdarships, questioning the MoU between Assam and Meghalaya.
During the hearing P. Sharma, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that in the event the demarcation is effected physically and boundary marks are placed on the ground pursuant to the MoU, the entire writ petition will be rendered infructuous, and the writ petitioners will be without any remedy.
Amit Kumar, Advocate General (AG) assisted by A.H.Kharwanlang, government advocate for the respondent submitted that no interim orders are called for at this stage as firstly, the locus of the petitioner has not been established and further no irreparable loss would be caused to the applicants/petitioners, in the event the MoU is carried forward. Looking into the nature of the matter and the submissions made by the AG, it appears that an objection in the form of an affidavit is necessary to be filed to enable this Court to consider the interim prayer as prayed by the applicants/petitioners”, the single bench headed by justice HS Thangkhiew said.
The AG has been accordingly permitted to file objections to the interim prayer and to the maintainability of the writ petition.
