After Kerala and West Bengal, Meghalaya is the third State in the country, which comes under total ban on agitations.
 

In a landmark judgement, with far reaching consequences, the Gauhati High Court put a blanket ban on bandhs and other kinds of agitation programmes in Meghalaya. After Kerala and West Bengal, Meghalaya is the third State in the country which comes under total ban on agitations. The verdict came following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Chief Executive Member of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) H S Shylla. A Division Bench of Guahati High Court in an interim order directed the government to deal with any bandh call and picketing with “iron hand’’. Referring to the Supreme Court ruling in this regard, acting Chief Justice D Biswas and Justice B P Kataky also directed   the KSU and other similar organisations in the State not to deviate from the direction given by the Supreme Court.

While the State Government’s response was a guarded one,      KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said: “The High Court was just following the Supreme Court order. If there is any issue of public interest, which need to be agitated we will agitate and no law can prevent us.” He found support from Federation of Khasi Jaintia Garo People (FKJGP) leader Wellbirth Rani, who said    that agitations were part of democratic movement. On the other hand, Hynniewtrep National Youth Federation (HNYF) president G. H. Kharshanlor said that they were not opposed to the court order, but “we are unhappy with the action of H S Shylla. He did not consider the positive aspects of agitations, but took decision to file the petition in haste”. According    to Mr. Kharshanlor, his organisation was not against the government and the agitations are democratic movement as per the Constitution. “If we do not get this right to agitate on public issues, then there is no option than to resort to armed struggle”, Mr. Kharshanlor    pointed out.

After the verdict, the petitioner H S Shylla said the series of agitations in Shillong prompted him to file the PIL. In his PIL, MR Shylla said 35 man days had been lost due to bandhs and public curfews called by the KSU and other organizations between May and August this year. The chronology of agitation programmes submitted by him before the High Court indicated that almost the entire two months had been wasted due to various agitations called by the pressure groups in the State particularly in Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Maximum number of man days lost was due to road blockade since it started on May 10. According to the petition, 18 days were affected by public curfew followed by eight days of office picketing and five days of bandh. Mr. Shylla also mentioned in his petition that in 2002, there were 44 man days lost due to public agitation. During the year, the people lost three days in March, two in May, 28 in June, five in July and three each in August and September.

Earlier in 1997 while hearing an appeal, the Supreme Court said, “the political parties and the organisations which call for bandhs and enforce them are liable to compensate the government, the public, and the private citizens for the loss suffered by them for such destruction. The state cannot shirk its responsibility of taking steps to recoup and of recouping the loss from the sponsors and organisers of such bandhs’’.

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