The Meghalaya High Court has ordered for maintenance of status quo on the almost triangular plot of vacant land at what is known as the Fire Brigade crossing in Lummawrie, Laitumkhrah here where there is a football playground and a basketball court.
The division bench of the High Court passed the order today on a writ appeal filed by Philamon Mawrie who claimed that the land belonged to her.
According to the High Court, the land will be permitted to be used as a playground and, in the very exceptional case, subject to the previous permission of the Deputy Commissioner, the odd fair may be allowed, but this should not exceed more than two a year till such time that the dispute as to title is resolved by the appropriate forum.
However, the court gave liberty to Mawrie to institute a civil suit in respect of the land in question.
“However, if the appellant does not institute an appropriate suit canvassing title in respect of the land in question within a period of three months from date, the effect of the order passed by the Deputy Commissioner on November 12, 2022 will remain undiluted,” the High Court added.
According to the government and the Dorbar Shnong Laitumkhrah, the larger plot of land where there is a football playground and a basketball court, was gifted to the Shillong Municipal Board and, as such, the public has access to such land.
Local boys and girls use it as a playground and, at times, permission is granted by the Laitumkhrah Dorbar Shnong and the Deputy Commissioner for fairs and exhibitions to be held there.
They also stated that such practice has gone on for years and, as such, till the civil dispute is decided, the Deputy Commissioner required the status quo to be maintained as far as usage of the ground was concerned.
Further, they pointed out that at the time that the order was passed by the Deputy Commissioner, there was no real civil dispute and it is only in the course of the present court proceedings that Mawrie has sought to assert title over the land in question.
Mawrie claimed to have inherited the land from her grandfather and protested the issuance of a letter by the Deputy Commissioner requiring her claim to be adjudicated by the Laitumkhrah Dorbar Shnong and its headman who are contesting her claim to the land in question.
The Dorbar Shnong and its headman however told the High Court that as early as in 1935, the plot of land was donated by U Mon Lyngdoh to the Shillong Municipality on condition that if it were converted into a park it would bear the name “Rev. U Mon Lyngdoh Park” and that the heirs of Lyngdoh would have the right to erect a monument in his memory in a corner of the land.
However, the land was not suitably identified in the letters exchanged between Lyngdoh and the Municipality in 1935 and according to Mawrie, the land that is referred to as “the piece of vacant land opposite to Swiss Cottage” in Lyngdoh’s letter of March 11, 1935 is a completely different parcel of land where a park now exists.
The Dorbar Shnong and its headman however claimed that the land that was donated by Lyngdoh to the Municipality is the exact almost triangular plot of land at the heart of the relevant crossing which the Dorbar Shnong has been in possession of for more than 80 years.
