Members of various social organisations and student bodies from Garo Hills met Meghalaya Governor C. H. Vijayashankar at Lok Bhawan in Shillong, pressing for amendments to ensure that a Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate is made mandatory for participation, both voting and contesting, in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) elections, with specific emphasis on changes to Paragraph 12(a) of the Sixth Schedule and amending Rule 128 by inserting provisions to explicitly include Indigenous Scheduled Tribes of Garo Hills.
Articulating the core demand, GSU president Tengsak G. Momin said, “There is a disturbing situation going on in Garo Hills regarding participation of non tribals in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, so as a fact we met the Governor for one point only that the Schedule Tribe certificate should be made mandatory for any participation, voting or contesting in the district council elections. Another point is ammending rule 128 (a), we asked the Governor that certain words should be inserted like Indigenous scheduled tribes of Garo Hills must be inserted in the particular rule. Another one is District Council composition executive committee chapter one general, here for qualifications of membership again paragraph 8 (a) here Indigenous scheduled tribe of Garo Hills must be inserted. So that non tribals cannot vote in the district council. We talked about ammending para 12 (a) also and this discussion has been going on because we had a serious of meetings with KSU also, FKJGP here in Shillong also, because we are asking for the ammendment of para 12 (a), the government of Meghalaya incessantly interpreted in the district council rules through this para 12 (a) , so we talked to the governor of there is a possibility to ammend para 12 (a), so the response of the Governor has been quite positive and the governor was talking about SIR also, wheather SIR should be implemented before commencing the district council elections. These are the certain things we discussed with the governor and the governor said the CM has met him, so the discussion was there regarding some ammendment in the district council elections rules, particularly the mandatory Schedule Tribe certificate which must be possed by any person who wants to contest or vote in the district council elections.” The delegation, in its memorandum titled Appeal for assent of mandatory Scheduled Tribe certificate for participation in the GHADC elections, underscored that the GHADC derives its authority from the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India and emphasised that the institution exists to preserve and protect indigenous language, land, identity, culture, forests, resources, customary laws and socio-political identity. It flagged anomalies in the Assam and Meghalaya (Autonomous District Council) Rules, 1951, particularly the continued use of Assembly electoral rolls enabling non-tribal participation since 1952, describing it as contrary to the spirit of the Sixth Schedule. The memorandum also referred to the February 17, 2026 notification on ST certificate validity, raised concerns over demographic changes in parts of Garo Hills, and cited constitutional provisions under Article 342 distinguishing Scheduled Tribes from non-tribal residents. Referring to judicial precedents including Samatha v. State of Andhra Pradesh and State of Kerala v. N. M. Thomas, it asserted that protective discrimination and exclusive governance arrangements are constitutionally justified. It called for separate electoral rolls or mandatory ST certification, an independent election mechanism for ADCs, amendment of Paragraph 12(a), and inclusion of ADC leadership in governance frameworks, while urging that provisions safeguarding indigenous tribes be implemented without repeated interference.
A similar memorandum was also submitted to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.
