Report Of The Drafting Committee
- Bill for protection of indigenous people of Manipur -

15 August 2015

REPORTOF THE DRAFTING COMMITTEE

Imphal, The 3rd August, 2015 .

I, on behalf of the Drafting Committee constituted by the State Government. vide order No. 9/6/(144}/2015-H{Pt) dated 21-07-2015 submit the Report of the Drafting Committee Drafting Committee for drafting a Bill for protection of the indigenous people of Manipur. The Committee believes that the report will help the State Government to introduce a legislation to fulfill the aspiration of the people of Manipur.

( Th. Debendra Singh)
Chairman, Drafting Committee

Shri O. Ibobi Singh
Hon'ble Chief Minister Manipur,

1.1 The State Government had constituted a Drafting Committee (Committee) consisting of the following for drafting a Bill for protection of indigenous people of Manipur vide Secretariat: Home Department, Government of Manipur, Order No. 9/6/(144)/2015-H(Pt) dated 21-07-2015 (copy enclosed asAnnexure-1): /
1. Shri Th. Debendra Singh
Hon'ble Minister (Law and LegislativeAffairs, Forest and Environment), Manipur. -Chairman
2. Shri Ng. Bijoy Singh, Hon'ble Chairman, Manipur Pollution Control Board - Member
3. Shri N. Biren Singh, Hon'ble M.L.A - Member
4. Shri R.K.Anand Singh, Hon'ble M.L.A. - Member
5. Shri M. Yaiskul Meetei, lAS, Special Secretary (Home), Govt. of Manipur - Convenor

1.2 For the purpose of drafting the Bill, the Committee considered the recommendations of the All Political Parties on ILPS, Manipur, various opinions and suggestions made by the political parties, namely, Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Admi Party, the All Manipur Bar Association and the High Court Bar Association, and also the points raised by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System(JCILPS),which are summarised below:

: All Political Parties on ILPS:
The recommendations made by the All Political Partieson ILPS are mentioned below

1. The State Government may enact a law to regulate the entry of visitors, who are non permanent residents of the State. to the State under the Article 19(5) read with Article 19(1)(d)(e) and Article 35 with the provisions for issuing a permit for proper verification of the character and antecedent of such visitors. Documents like voter identity card issued by the Election Commission of India, ration card issued by the competent authority etc. may be used to assist in identification of such visitors. The operation of the law may be exempted to the persons employed in connection with the affairs of the Union Government and State Government of Private / Public undertaking or a local authority or the body established by law or the student or person employed from outside the State in educational establishment in the State or such other persons as may be determined / decided by the State Government. The law shall in addition to but shall not be in derogation of any law for the time being in force.

2. The State Government may also enact a law for compulsory reporting and verification of antecedents of tenants and domestic/ professional helpers in the line of the Sikkim Tenants and Domestic and Professional Helps (Compulsory Verification) Act, 2014.

3. The Strict enforcement of the existing law relating to the foreigners may be taken up by the State Government to check the entry of illegal migrants from neighbouring countries. Such a course of action will contain the issue of influx of unwanted illegal foreign migrants and anti-social elements in the State.

. 4. The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960 may be suitably amended to incorporate a provision for imposing restriction on the transfer of land t6 the non residents of the State. In the analogy of section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972 (as amended). The basic intention behind its enactment of protecting the interest of local inhabitants while ensuing that the development of the State is not hampered.

5. State Government may take immediate action for strict implementation of the existing labour laws in the State. Implementation of the labour/laws like, the Inter-State Migrants Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 will enable the State Government to identify and to restrict anti-social elements who tried to enter the State as the workmen.

6. The State Government may create a separate Directorate under the State Home Department for monitoring and effective implementation of the proposed law on the Manipur Visitors Compulsory Registration, after its enactment.

Political Parties:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its representation {Annexure-2) made a suggestion that to make and implement a Regulation that imposes reasonable restriction (i) on entry into Manipur by any non-resident person without a valid pass issued by a competent authority, and (ii) to transfer of land owned by the resident of Manipur or any non-resident person.

The Aam Adami Party had submitted a draft Bill of ILP system in Manipur and is annexed as Annexure-3.

Bar Associations:

The .AII Manipur Bar Association:

The All Manipur Bar Association submitted a draft Bill to the Committee and a copy of the draft Bill is annexed as Annexure-4.

.High Court Bar Association:

The High Court Bar Association submitted a draft Bill to the Committee and a copy of the draft Bill is annexed asAnnexure-5

JCILPs

The JCILPS in their letter dated 23-02-2015 submitted to the State Government made their recommendations as follows:

A. That, in the title of the Bill the word 'Visitor' is vague and innocuous, the JCILPS '\ firmly demands the suitable terminology 'Non-Indigenous' or 'Non-Manipuri' or Migrants' in lieu of 'Visitors'.

B. That, JClLPSfeels that the passing of the Bill in the proposed draft would legitimize the presence of people who had earlier resided in Manipur since 1949, and the JCILPShad demanded a cut-off base year of 1951 as an unavoidable component in the proposed legislation in order to mitigate demographic and socio-economic imbalances developing in the multi-ethnic population of Manipur.

C. That, a clear objective in the Bill for protection of the indigenous peoples of Manipur and its land out of Demographic imbalance must be mentioned in the Government's Draft Bill

D. That, the objective then should be "The necessity to protect the Minorities, Distinct ethnic Manipuris who deserve their rightful preservation such as social, cultural, economic and political practices, etc., should be mentioned and necessary actions must be taken up by the Government

E. That, the indigenous peoples in the context of Manipur be inserted in the Bill as the ethnic communities who had been born in the State along with those who had merged into the population through kinship and through sharing of its socio-economic, cultural and multi-ethnic civilization of the State

The JCILPS demanded the further inclusion of the following five points:

(1) a permit or a pass for migrants as regardstheir purpose, whereabouts and validity etc., of their presence. .
(2) a cut-off base year of 1951 to all people participating and creating of demographic influx into the state
(3) no land ownership rights to are to be given to all non-indigenous people and necessary procedures be included in the preparation of the Bill proposed
(4) A full-fledged labour department which has outreach in all the districts of Manipur be strengthened in operational matters for registration and regulation of inter-state migrant labourers, and its necessary rules be framed.
5) Detection and deportation of illegal migrants or other non-indigenous peoples should be included in the proposed Bill and necessary action taken thereof

1.3 Regarding the restriction on ownership of land by non indigenous people, the Committee is of the opinion that an amendment may be made to the Manipur Land Revenue and land Reforms Act, 1960.

1.4 There are various labour laws enacted by Parliament and 1 (one) law enacted by the Legislative Assembly of Manipur. Of these labour laws enacted by Parliament, the Inter-State Migrant Workers (Registration of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 regulates the employment of inter-state migrant workmen. An effective implementation of this Act and other labour laws by strengthening of the State Labour Department will redress the issues relating to inter-state migrants in the State.

1.5 The Committee shares the view that there is illegal influx of the foreigners to Manipur. The menace of such illegal influx can be put under control by implementing the Foreigner Act, 1946. The detection and deportation of foreigners staying illegally in Manipur can be done under this law. The subject is beyond the field of legislation of the State Legislature. The Committee recommends implanting the Foreigners Act, 1946 in its true spirit.

While considering the issue of implementing Foreigners Act, 1946 the agreement as regard the detection and deportation between the then Government of Manipur and AMSU and AMSCOC on 22nd July, 1980 and 5th August, 1980 and agreement signed on 9th November, 1994 between the then Government and AMSU AND AMSCOC during P.R (President's Rule) may be looked into.

1.6 For the purposes of the points at (1), (3), (4) and (5) raised by JCILPS for inclusion in the Bill to be drafted, the Committee drew its attention to the constitutional provisions of article (1) (d) and (e) and article 19 (5) of the constitution of India. Under article 19 (1) (d) & (e), all citizens have the right to move freely throughout the territory of India and to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India. By virtue of article 19 (5), the State is not prevented to make a law imposing reasonable restrictions on the exercise of any right conferred by article 19(1)(d) & (e).

Regarding the issue relating to legislative competency of the State Legislators to enact a law under article 19(5), it is relevant to consider the article 12 of the Constitution. Under the article 12, the word "State" is defined as including the Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States for the purposes of Part-III of the Constitution. As the article 19 falls under Part-III of the Constitution, the word "Staten used in article 19(5) includes the Government and the Legislature of the State of Manipur as defined under article 12 of the Constitution. The Committee is, therefore, of the opinion that the State Legislature is competent to enact such a law under the article 19(5).

Further, as mandated under article 13, the State shall not make any law which takes away or abridges any of the rights conferred by Part-Ill and such law shall, to the extent of contravention, be void. In the light of the above constitutional provisions, the law to be made by the State Legislature shall be to enforce reasonable restrictions on exercise of the rights under the article 19 (1) (e) & (d) but not to take away or abridge such rights from a citizen.

In the light of the deliberations and recommendations made above, the Committee I has also recommended two model draft Bills, namely, 'The Manipur Native People Protection Bill, 2015", annexed as Annexure-A and "The Manipur Land Revenue and Land .\ Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015", annexed as Annexure-B. The Committee believes that the draft Bill covers all issues raised by JCILPSand various views and opinions submitted by the stakeholders to the Committee.

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