The Supreme Court has directed the National Commission for SC/ST to decide on the ST status of Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma within eight weeks.
Disposing off two petitions, which questioned Sangma’s Schedule Tribe (ST) status, a Division bench consisting of Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice MY Eqbal ordered the Commission to give its verdict within the stipulated time.
The petitioners included Tennydard M Marak and All North East Indigenous Garo Law Promoters’ Association (ANEIGLPA), who raised objection to Sangma’s ST status.
The petitioner, Marak raised similar objection through a Public Interest Litigation against Sangma’s ST status in the Meghalaya High Court. A Division bench of the High Court consisting of Justice TNK Singh and Justice S.R. Sen dismissed the PIL as "non-maintainable" last year.
Marak had filed the PIL alleging that Sangma had fraudulently obtained the Scheduled Tribe certificate by "misrepresentation and suppressing the material facts".
The petitioner argued that since the Garos are a matrilineal society and lineages are taken from the mother’s side, Mukul Sangma cannot be a Garo ST, since his late mother was Roshanara Begum, a non Garo.
After the High Court verdict, Marak approached the Supreme court . A similar petition was filed by ANEIGLPA.
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