SHILLONG: Utilizing its powers under the Sixth Schedule, the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council has issued a notification preventing non-tribal individuals from purchasing or claiming land in the Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya, officials announced on Friday.
However, the existing land ownership of non-tribal individuals will remain unchanged.
The council’s directive aims to protect the land and traditional rights of indigenous tribal communities and to prevent the alienation of these lands to non-tribal persons.
The Sixth Schedule is unique to the autonomous tribal regions of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, ensuring their administrative autonomy.
According to the notification released on Thursday, no non-tribal individual may acquire, purchase, hold, possess, inherit, lease, mortgage, transfer, or claim rights over land located within the Garo Hills districts.
Furthermore, any transfer, settlement, mutation, registration, or recognition of land for a non-tribal individual will not be deemed valid and will not be recognized by any authority.
The council has also prohibited benami transactions, which involve land being held in the name of a tribal individual for the benefit of a non-tribal person, marking such holdings as void and unenforceable.
Any rights or possessions acquired in violation of this notification are subject to cancellation, resumption, or restoration according to the law.
The council clarified that this order does not affect non-tribal individuals who legally inherited or acquired ancestral property prior to the implementation of the relevant land transfer laws.
Additionally, any holdings or transactions explicitly approved by the government or competent authority under current laws will remain valid; however, such exempted holdings cannot be further transferred without prior authorization.
This notification is effective immediately.
The latest directive follows a previous notification from last month, which barred non-indigenous individuals from running in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council elections set for April 10.
