Shillong, Oct 8: A division bench of the Meghalaya High Court today started hearing a writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of the voter rules in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) that restrict electoral participation in council elections only to native tribal communities.
The petition was filed by Mozidul Rahman, who has engaged senior advocate and prominent national Congress Party leader Salman Khurshid.
The amendments to the GHADC electoral rules make it mandatory for candidates running in council elections to possess a Scheduled Tribe certificate. A separate electoral roll will also be crafted to exclude non-tribal voters. These have been long-pending demands among Garo groups but only saw movement by the administration after communal violence broke out in March in relation to scheduled GHADC elections (since postponed twice).
The matter was heard by a bench comprising Justice Hamar Singh Thangkhiew and Justice B Bhattacharjee.
This was just a preliminary hearing and the court will next hear the case on October 29.
