Guwahati: The governments of Assam and Meghalaya filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Friday, contesting the Meghalaya High Court’s decision to stay the MoU that their chief ministers had signed to resolve boundary disputes.
The arguments of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the matter required an urgent hearing because the single and division bench of the high court had stayed the operation of the inter-state border pact that was signed earlier last year were noted by a bench made up of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices P S Narasimha, and J B Pardiwala.
“We will hear it. Please provide three copies of the petition,” the CJI said as reported by PTI.
On December 9, Meghalaya High Court single-judge panel ordered a temporary halt to any ground-based physical delineation or boundary post construction related to the interstate border deal.
Later, a division bench of the high court declined to overturn the single judge bench’s decision, which prompted the filing of an appeal with the highest court.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma had signed a MoU in March that demarcated the border in at least six of the 12 contentious places that frequently caused tension between the two states.
The agreement was signed on March 29 of last year by the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The agreement aimed to end the ongoing disagreement in six of the twelve locations along the two states’ 9 kilometre boundary.
It has been 50 years since Assam and Meghalaya resolved their boundary issue.