Apex court shows tilt towards Assam's stand

NEW DELHI, April 19: In a shot in the arm for the Assam Government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that it favoured Assam's plea for entrusting the Survey of India with the job of ascertaining the inter-State boundary between Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, rather than the Union Government's suggestion for constitution of a boundary commission. The vexed issue of demarcation of inter-State boundary came up for hearing on Wednesday at the Court of the Chief Justice, A S Anand. The division bench that also included Justice R C Lahoty and Justice Doraiswamy Raju, adjourned the case for further hearing until four weeks later to enable the States of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland to respond to the plea of the Assam Government. Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee made his suggestions by favouring commissioning of yet another boundary commission for the purpose and allowing the States concerned to deliberate on the terms of references and also the composition of the commission. However, the Assam Government's counsel Vijay Hansari opposed it, pointing out the past experiences about the boundary commissions and findings, which were never implemented. He suggested that instead of yet another boundary commission, the Survey of India may be entrusted with the work of ascertaining the actual constitutional boundary between the States based upon the topographical maps prepared by them. The physical demarcation may be conducted thereafter by the joint teams consisting of the Survey of India and representatives of the concerned States. The joint teams will subsequently find out the ground, based on the position of the boundary, the nature and extend of encroachments on all sides, Hansaria said.