Guwahati: A plea of the Meghalaya government challenging the high court’s decision staying the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya for settling their festering boundary dispute will hear in July, the Supreme Court said on Monday.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices P.S. Narasiha and J.B. Pardiwala said the plea, which should have been listed on a non-miscellaneous day, has wrongly been listed on Monday by the apex court registry.

“We will keep this in July,” the bench stated.

On January 6, the bench took note of the submissions that some of the areas, which are covered under the MoU, are not getting the benefits of the developmental schemes due to the old border disputes and, moreover, the boundary between the two states has not been altered due to the agreement.

It also issued notices to the four people who had originally moved the high court against the execution of the MoU on various grounds including that the settlement breached Article 3 of the Constitution.

On December 8, 2022, the state government has challenged the order of the Meghalaya High Court staying the MoU signed by the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya for settling the boundary dispute.

Earlier, while assailing the high court’s order, the Meghalaya government said the issues concerning the alteration of boundaries or exchange of areas between two states are a purely political question within the “sole domain” of the Executive.

In its plea before the top court, the Meghalaya government said the high court failed to appreciate that an interim order cannot be passed on mere asking of the petitioner when the matter pertains to exercise of sovereign functions like demarcation of boundary between the states.

The petition stated that the MoU signed by the two states is a sovereign act between the states to demarcate the boundaries in a fair and transparent manner which cannot be interfered with by way of a writ petition and much less by passing an interim order.

Moreover, the scope of judicial review in respect of such matters is extremely narrow, it said.

The MoU was signed on March 29, 2022, between the States of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of the Union Minister of Home Affairs settling outstanding boundary disputes in respect of six areas, but the division bench failed to appreciate this when it rendered the challenged judgement.

“Clause 19 of MoU required the Survey of India to demarcate the boundary of the State of Assam and the State of Meghalaya in respect of six areas in presence of representatives of both the states. The interim order passed by the single judge has in effect resulted in stalling the said process of demarcation of the boundary between the two states and derailing the resolution of a long pending boundary dispute between the State of Assam and the State of Meghalaya,” the plea submitted.

The state government said the high court ought to have interfered with the interim order passed by the single judge as the same was passed in a mechanical manner without adherence to the judicially determined principles for grant of interim relief.

A single judge bench of the Meghalaya High Court had on December 8 ordered an interim stay on physical demarcation or erection of boundary posts on the ground following the inter-state border pact.

Later, a division bench of the high court refused to interfere with the order of the single judge bench, prompting the petitioners to file an appeal in the top court.

The pact sought to resolve the protracted dispute in six of the 12 places along the 884.9-km border between the two states.

The boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya has lingered for 50 years. However, efforts to resolve it have gained pace in recent times.