Case: The District Council; United Khasi-Jaintia Hills, Shillon Vs. Ka Drepsila Lyngdoh Of Syllai-U-Lor, Mylliem, Myllie

subject to the exceptions hereinafter specified and unless otherwise declared by the Government of Assam, be in force in the said village in so far as the same may be applicable thereto.Provided that Chapter II and Sections 9, 51, 58, 59 (b), 59 (g), 65, 78, 217 and 218 of the said Act shall not apply to the said villages and that clause (b) of sub-section (I) of S. 55 of the said Act shall not apply to the Umshirpi and Umkhra rivers so far as they are within the said villages.2. For the purposes of the application of the said provisions. Notifications, orders, schemes, rules forms, and bye-laws.(a) references to the Local Government shall be read as reference to the Government of Assam.(b) the said villages shall be deemed to be a municipality designated the Shillong (Administered Area) Municipality, and every officer or auhority, for the time being appointed or constituted in accordance with the Assam Municipal Act, 1923 as amended, to exercise powers or discharge duties within the Municipality of Shillong, shall exercise the like powers and discharge the like duties in accordance with the said Act within the Shillong (Administered Area) Municipality and shall be deemed to have been duly appointed or constituted in accordance with the said Act.(c) All sums received by the Municipal Board of the Municipality of Shillong and all fines paid or levied in the said villages shall be credited to the municipal fund of the Municipality of Shillong.x x x x5. It would appear from this notification that what was ceded to the British Government was only "the jurisdiction necessary for the municipal administration in accordance with the Assam Municipal Act, 1923" of certain villages including Mawkhar and the Governor General in Council was pleased to issue an order extending to the said villages the provisions of the Assam Municipal Act, 1923 subject to certain exceptions. The order also provided that for the purposes of the application of the said Act, and the notifications orders, schemes, rules, forms and byelaws made for the Shillong Municipality which were also made applicable, these villages were to be deemed as a municipality designated the Shillong (Administered Areas) Municipality.6. From this notification dated January 16, 1934, and an extract from the Demand and Bill Register of the Shillong Municipality for the year 1957-58, annexed to one of the writ petitions, which refers to South-East Mawkhar as a Ward of the Shillong Municipality, the High Court held that Bara Bazar was part of the Shillong Municipal area. The High Court also relied on the Khasi Siemships (Application of Laws) Order, 1949. This order refers for its purpose to "Shillong Administered Areas" by, which is meant "so much of the areas for the time being comprised within the Municipality of Shillong as forms part of the United KhasiJaintia Hills District." The first Schedule to the order defines the "Shillong Administered Areas" as comprising the area covered by the Shillong (Administered Areas) Municipality, which includes Mawkhar.7. We do not think that the material on which the High Court relied justifies the finding that village Mawkhar which includes Bara Bazar was cart of the Shillong Municipality. The notification dated the 16th January, 1934 makes it clear beyond doubt that the Siem of Mylliem ceded the villages for the specified purpose of municipal administration only. It seems to us also clear that though the provisions of the Assam Municipal Act. 1923 were made applicable to the ceded villages. the villages were-never included within the territorial jurisdiction of the Shillong Municipality. The notification itself directed that these villages were to be deemed as a distinct Municipality designated the Shillong (Administered Areas) Municipality which shows that they were not intended to be merged in the Municipality of Shillong though the officers and authorities exercising powers or discharging duties within the Municipality of Shillong were to exercise similar powers and discharge like duties in the ceded areas according to a direction contained in the notification. Chapter II of the Assam Municipal Act. 1923 which, as it stood at the date of the notification, empowered the provincial government to include within a municipality any local area in the vicinity of the same, was not made applicable to these villages. There is also no evidence that these territories were subsequently merged in the Municipality of Shillong After the commencement of the Constitution of India, as paragraph 19 of the Sixth Schedule provides, the administration of the territories comprised in the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District vested in the Governor until the District Council was constituted in June 1952. It is not clear from the material on record whether the District Council took up the entire burden of administration throughout the territories from the beginning or allowed the existing arrangements to continue at some places for some time. The extract from the Bill and Demand Register of the Shillong Municipality for the year l957-58, referred to in the judgment of this High Court, seems to suggest the second possibility. Even if this were so. it does not mean that Mawkhar or South-East Mawkhar was included in the territorial jurisdiction of the Shillong Municipality. In view of the notification dated the 16th January, 1934 which preserves the distinct entity of the ceded villages and in the absence of any provision effecting a merger of these territories in the Municipality of Shillong, reference in the Khasi Siemships (Application of Laws) Order. 1949 to any part of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills District as "comprised within the Municipality of Shillong" must he read to mean that part of the District in which the officers and the authorities of the Shillong Municipality continued to exercise powers and discharge duties as before. In our opinion the jurisdiction of the District-Council of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills extends to the Bara Bazar areas and as such the impugned orders issued at the instance of the appellants to the first respondent in each of these two appeals restraining them from constructing shops in the aforesaid area are not invalid.

Court's decision (1 = petition accepted / positive for appellant, 0 = rejected / negative): 1

Reasoning from the judgment:
1[ds]There could be also no disputes in view of paragraph 6 of the Schedule, as to the power of the District Council to manage the Bara Bazar Market and to issue for that purpose the orders impugned in these two cases. if the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to which we have so far referred were the only relevant provisions for consideration.It would appear from this notification that what was ceded to the British Government was only "the jurisdiction necessary for the municipal administration in accordance with the Assam Municipal Act, 1923" of certain villages including Mawkhar and the Governor General in Council was pleased to issue an order extending to the said villages the provisions of the Assam Municipal Act, 1923 subject to certain exceptions. The order also provided that for the purposes of the application of the said Act, and the notifications orders, schemes, rules, forms and byelaws made for the Shillong Municipality which were also made applicable, these villages were to be deemed as a municipality designated the Shillong (Administered Areas) Municipality.We do not think that the material on which the High Court relied justifies the finding that village Mawkhar which includes Bara Bazar was cart of the Shillong Municipality. The notification dated the 16th January, 1934 makes it clear beyond doubt that the Siem of Mylliem ceded the villages for the specified purpose of municipal administration only. It seems to us also clear that though the provisions of the Assam Municipal Act. 1923 were made applicable to the ceded villages. the villages were-never included within the territorial jurisdiction of the Shillong Municipality. The notification itself directed that these villages were to be deemed as a distinct Municipality designated the Shillong (Administered Areas) Municipality which shows that they were not intended to be merged in the Municipality of Shillong though the officers and authorities exercising powers or discharging duties within the Municipality of Shillong were to exercise similar powers and discharge like duties in the ceded areas according to a direction contained in the notification. Chapter II of the Assam Municipal Act. 1923 which, as it stood at the date of the notification, empowered the provincial government to include within a municipality any local area in the vicinity of the same, was not made applicable to these villages. There is also no evidence that these territories were subsequently merged in the Municipality of Shillong After the commencement of the Constitution of India, as paragraph 19 of the Sixth Schedule provides, the administration of the territories comprised in the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District vested in the Governor until the District Council was constituted in June 1952. It is not clear from the material on record whether the District Council took up the entire burden of administration throughout the territories from the beginning or allowed the existing arrangements to continue at some places for some time. The extract from the Bill and Demand Register of the Shillong Municipality for the year l957-58, referred to in the judgment of this High Court, seems to suggest the second possibility. Even if this were so. it does not mean that Mawkhar or South-East Mawkhar was included in the territorial jurisdiction of the Shillong Municipality. In view of the notification dated the 16th January, 1934 which preserves the distinct entity of the ceded villages and in the absence of any provision effecting a merger of these territories in the Municipality of Shillong, reference in the Khasi Siemships (Application of Laws) Order. 1949 to any part of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills District as "comprised within the Municipality of Shillong" must he read to mean that part of the District in which the officers and the authorities of the Shillong Municipality continued to exercise powers and discharge duties as before. In our opinion the jurisdiction of the District-Council of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills extends to the Bara Bazar areas and as such the impugned orders issued at the instance of the appellants to the first respondent in each of these two appeals restraining them from constructing shops in the aforesaid area are not invalid.