• SC to hear plea on border pact between Meghalaya and Assam in July

    Regional
    SC to hear plea on border pact between Meghalaya and Assam in July
    The Assam-Meghalaya border agreement, which was signed between the two states after the MoU was signed on March 29, 2022, was temporarily halted by the Meghalaya High Court on December 8, 2022. 

    Digital Desk: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Meghalaya and Assam signed in July to settle the long-running interstate boundary issue will now be heard by the Supreme Court of India, which said that it will do so. The High Court's judgement suspended the MoU.

    The appeal was incorrectly listed today by the Registry, according to a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha, and JB Pardiwala, who will hear the case in July.

    The Assam-Meghalaya border agreement, which was signed between the two states after the MoU was signed on March 29, 2022, was temporarily halted by the Meghalaya High Court on December 8, 2022. Conrad Sangma, the chief minister of Meghalaya, and Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, signed the MoU to settle the long-running interstate boundary issue, notably about six districts.

    When appealing the High Court's decision, the Meghalaya administration stated that such matters as changing state boundaries or exchanging land between two states fall under the "sole domain" of the Executive and are solely political.

    Assam was required to preserve 18.51 square kilometres of the 36.79 square kilometres of total land, while Meghalaya was required to keep 18.28 square kilometres.

    In 1972, Meghalaya was separated from Assam to become a distinct State, however, the new State disputed the Assam Reorganisation Act, which resulted in disagreements around 12 border crossings.

    In March 2022, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, both states inked a historic deal in Delhi to settle their 50-year-old unresolved boundary issue. This took place at the Ministry of Home Affairs.