Mizoram to challenge High Court order on Inner Line permit

Aizawl, Jun 18 (UNI) The Mizoram government will challenge a Gauhati High Court's interim order that directs the former not to arrest or deport any Indian national under the Inner Line Permit(ILP) Regulation.

This order will stand till the disposal of the main PIL. The GHC order followed a miscellaneous petition filed by the North East Plain's People Traders and Youth Federation, who had earlier filed a PIL against the IPL.

The miscellaneous petition alleged that Mizoram police arrested a large number of non-tribals in Aizawl on grounds of not possessing the ILP despite the court's request not to take any perceptive action unless the issue was decided.

Maintaining that Mizoram government did not violate any rule of law by enforcing the ILP in the state, chief secretary Haukhum Hauzel today told a news conference that "We will challenge the High Court order up to the Supreme Court.".

Asserting that the ILP or the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act 1873 had been legislated by the British to protect the Mizos from assimilation by the numerically larger plains population, Hauzel said the Supreme Court has already ruled on the constitutional validity of the ILP in earlier cases.

The ILP Regulation is in force in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh besides Mizoram.

Mizoram law secretary P Chakraborty also informed that in the Arunachal Pradesh versus Khudiram Chakma case, the Supreme Court had not found the ILP/ILR unconstitutional. "If it is constitutional in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland why should it be unconstituitional in Mizoram, we will contest this very vigorously" Mr Chakraborty said.

Home secretary C Ropianga said the Mizoram Peace Accord-1986 clause 8 mentions that the ILR as it is now enforced in Mizoram will not be amended or repealed without consulting the Government of Mizoram.

UNI ZS PC KLC1712