Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
A single bench of the Meghalaya High Court on December 8 heard a writ petition for stay of the operation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated March 29, 2022, signed between the states of Meghalaya and Assam.
“It is however understood that during the intervening period, no physical demarcation or erection of boundary posts on the ground, pursuant to the MoU dated 29.03.2022 shall be carried out, till the next date,” Justice HS Thangkhiew said in his order.
The writ petition was filed by four traditional heads of the Khasi Syiemship and Sirdarship questioning the MoU signed between the two state governments to resolve the border dispute in six out of the 12 areas of difference in the first phase.
The next hearing into the matter has been listed for February 6, 2023.
When asked if the ongoing case in the High Court would in any way affect the Phase II of the border talks between the two states, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that talks will go on till such time if there is an order from the High Court.
“From the government side the talks will carry on,” Tynsong said.
He said that in the Phase I of the border talks where six areas of difference out of the 12 were resolved on the MoU was signed but the detailed intricacies of those areas and which points (falls under Meghalaya or Assam) will be done by Survey of India.
Survey of India has been entrusted to take over the detailed survey and jointly with Assam and Meghalaya governments will be involved when they do the spot detail survey of these areas.
