{"id":62072,"date":"2013-07-10T22:11:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T02:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/?p=50070"},"modified":"2013-07-10T22:11:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T02:11:57","slug":"july-12-consultative-meeting-on-article-371-a-likely-to-be-stormy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/2013\/07\/10\/july-12-consultative-meeting-on-article-371-a-likely-to-be-stormy\/","title":{"rendered":"July 12 Consultative Meeting on Article 371 (A) likely to be stormy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post July 12 Consultative Meeting on Article 371 (A) likely to be stormy<\/a> appeared first on \u00a0KanglaOnline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Oken Jeet Sandham<\/p>\n

Nagaland, KOHIMA, Jul 10 (NEPS):<\/p>\n

After the recent direct questioning of the Constitutional validity of Article 371(A) by the Home Ministry with regard to the passing of the \u201cNagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations, 2012,\u201d by the \u201cNagaland Legislative Assembly\u201d on September 22, 2012, the Constitutional interpretations with regard to the Article 371(A) have been going on.<\/p>\n

Article 371 (A) (1)(a) says \u201cNotwithstanding anything in this Constitution, — no Act of Parliament in respect of:-<\/p>\n

(i)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Religious or social practices of the Nagas,<\/p>\n

(ii)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Naga customary law and procedure,<\/p>\n

(iii)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law,<\/p>\n

(iv)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ownership and transfer of land and its recourses,<\/p>\n

Shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by resolution so decides.<\/p>\n

The Nagaland Legislative Assembly, in exercise of its powers under Article 371 (A) (1)(a) of the Constriction of India, had unanimously passed a resolution on the 26th<\/sup> July, 2010 rendering inter alia all Acts of Parliament governing petroleum and natural gas inapplicable to the State of Nagaland.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Union of India, while replying in Lok Sabha to a question raised on the issue on the 10th<\/sup> March, 2011, declared that the state of Nagaland has the power to frame rules for governing matters relating to \u201cpetroleum and natural gas\u201d within the territory of Nagaland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now with these in mind, the Nagaland Legislative Assembly has passed the \u201cNagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations, 2012\u201d on September 22, 2012. And then subsequently the Nagaland Government invited \u201cExpressions of Interest (EoI)\u201d from oil companies after setting up a ministerial group on petroleum.<\/p>\n

Now the Union Home Ministry came down heavily to the Nagaland Government terming the Nagaland Legislative Assembly\u2019s resolution \u201cempowering itself with the right to legislate on oil and gas related issues is unconstitutional and invalid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to the Home Ministry statement, Minister for Planning and Coordination, Evaluation, Geology and Mining, TR Zeliang dismissed the Home Ministry statement saying that \u201cWhatever we have done is Constitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking to media persons here Wednesday, the Senior Minister said, \u201cWe are doing this under the Article 371 (A)(1)(a) and also this particular Clause was referred to the Point 7 of the 16-Point Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDelhi is trying to create confusion,\u201d Zeliang fumed saying, \u201cThey can\u2019t do like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the reply given by the Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramanium on the \u201cOwnership and transfer of land and its recourses in respect of minerals including petroleum and natural gas\u201d in Nagaland has given very clear picture that the State of Nagaland was empowered to frame legislation on oil and gas related issues.<\/p>\n

He also explained with regard to the resolution so adopted by the Nagaland Legislative Assembly whether it was in line with the provision of Article 371 (A) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cTo have a better understanding of the provision it is necessary to examine the historical circumstances leading to the creation of State of Nagaland (hereinafter referred to as the State). \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. The Special provisions made applicable to the State are invariably a result of the special historical circumstances and while interpreting the special provision the same should be kept in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Solicitor General of India concludes: \u201cTherefore, in legal parlance the term \u2018land\u2019 signifies not only the earth\u2019s surface but also applies below and above the surface. It is not only confined to solids but may encompass within its bounds such things as gases and liquids. Thus, the term \u201cland and its resources\u201d in Article 371(A) to Mines and Minerals, even though a declaration as envisaged by Entry 54, List I of Schedule VII has been made by the Union through Section 2 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the State of Nagaland would have the power to frame its own laws regarding ownership and transfer of such land and resources under Article 371 (A).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Delhi should not try to create confusion as whatever we are doing is under the Article 371(A)(I)(a) of the Constitution of India,\u201d Zeliang said. \u201cIn fact, till such time when we brought in the Assembly to pass the Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations in 2012, we have been just following all the Acts passed by Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The post July 12 Consultative Meeting on Article 371 (A) likely to be stormy<\/a> appeared first on \u00a0KanglaOnline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Read more \/ Original news source: http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2013\/07\/nagaland-july-12-consultative-meeting-on-article-371-a-likely-to-be-stormy\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nagaland-july-12-consultative-meeting-on-article-371-a-likely-to-be-stormy<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post July 12 Consultative Meeting on Article 371 (A) likely to be stormy<\/a> appeared first on \u00a0KanglaOnline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Oken Jeet Sandham Nagaland, KOHIMA, Jul 10 (NEPS): After the recent direct questioning of the Constitutional validity of Article 371(A) by the Home Ministry with regard to the passing of the \u201cNagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations, 2012,\u201d by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post July 12 Consultative Meeting on Article 371 (A) likely to be stormy<\/a> appeared first on \u00a0KanglaOnline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[40,330,2502,96,2475,2503,313],"class_list":["post-62072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanglaonline","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-kanglaonline-2","tag-naga-customary-law","tag-nagaland","tag-nagaland-legislative-assembly","tag-nagaland-petroleum-natural-gas-regulations","tag-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}