Shillong, March 7: The Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) has issued a notification prohibiting non-tribal individuals from purchasing or claiming land in the Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya, invoking its constitutional powers under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, officials said on March 6.
The council clarified that the directive will not affect land already legally owned by non-tribal persons. According to the notification, the move has been taken to safeguard and preserve the land, customary rights and traditional ownership of indigenous tribal communities in the region, while preventing the alienation of such land to non-tribal individuals.
The Sixth Schedule provides for the administration of certain tribal areas as autonomous entities in four northeastern states—Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
According to the notification, no person belonging to a non-tribal community will be allowed to acquire, purchase, hold, possess, inherit, lease, mortgage, transfer or claim any right, title or interest in land located within the Garo Hills districts. It also states that any transfer, settlement, mutation, registration or recognition of land in favour of a non-tribal person will not be considered valid or acted upon by any authority.
The council has further prohibited benami transactions in which land is held in the name of a tribal individual for the benefit of a non-tribal person. Such arrangements, it said, will be treated as void and unenforceable, and any right or possession obtained in violation of the notification will be subject to cancellation, resumption or restoration as per the law.
However, the order will not affect non-tribal persons who had lawfully inherited or acquired ancestral property before the relevant land transfer regulations came into force. The council also stated that land holdings or transactions expressly sanctioned by the government or a competent authority under existing laws will remain valid, though such properties cannot be further transferred without prior approval.
The notification has come into force with immediate effect. The directive follows another order issued by the council last month barring non-indigenous persons from contesting the elections to the GHADC scheduled to be held on April 10.
