1. One of the important aspects of Constitutional guarantees under Article 371 A(1)(a)of the Constitution of India is that no Parliamentary Act on “social practices“ of Nagas will apply to Nagaland ,unless the Nagaland Legislative Assembly decides to apply by a resolution.
2. That, Women are not second to men in Naga society is an irrefutable part of Naga Customary Law. Many Naga leaders while commenting upon women reservation in Municipal and Town Councils appear to be in total oblivion of this essential ingredient of gender equity in the Naga Customary Law ,for example if there is 100 % opportunity for both men and women to participate in any sector, according to this custom of gender equity ,Naga men and woman shall have to share the sector on 50/50 basis . If Political leaders and Tribal Hohos deny this equitable share they would be committing irreparable injury , not only to the Naga customs, but the very letter and spirit of Article 371 -A (1)(a).
3. So far, despite this inviolable Naga custom of gender equity, women have been unable to occupy a small space, leave aside, equal space in electoral politics, be it elections to the Municipal and town Councils , the Legislative Assembly or the Houses of the Parliament. Political parties in the State which vividly championed the cause of Article 371 A(1)(a) of the Constitution have not , in practice , sponsored equal number of women to contest elections to Municipal and Town Councils ,Legislative Assembly or the Parliament in accordance with this custom of gender equity. Thus, these political parties and their leaders , the Tribal Hohos and other civil societies, have only been paying lip service to Article 371 A (1)(a) and flagrantly denying women their due share in electoral politics under the garb of advocating customary law. On the other hand, they have only been contradicting the Naga Customary Law of gender equity and mutilating the age old custom of equality of sexes.
4. During all these many years of denial of women reservation in Municipal and Town Councils , the political leaders who had their heyday in the yesteryears were firing from the shoulders of other sections of society. Neither, these political leaders thought it prudent to consult the women groups starting from the village level to the apex bodies, nor encouraged the tribal Hohos and other organisations to include woman representatives, so that the voices of women was heard and their dues, duly reckoned.
5. Over these many years of undoing the Naga custom of gender equity,they did not give any opportunity to hear the women, who were the affected parties. All these years only the men spoke , the men’s voices were heard and the men decided against women reservation, all in the name of upholding the Naga custom of gender equity and Article 371A(1)(a).
6. Under the direction of the High Court which came down heavily upon the State Government, the woman reservation provisions in the State Municipal Act was enacted in 2006. This happened, because they were unable to explain to the High Court how under Article 371A)(1)(a), they could deny women reservation when the Naga custom is to provide gender equity .
7. In the name of law and order situation, the State Government under the former Chief Minister refused to effectuate the women reservation provision enacted under the High Court’s Order . Thus, the entire State Act was committed to the Article 371A(1)(a) Committee of the Assembly for a review to buy time. Without examining and explaining how the Naga Custom of gender equity is affected by women reservation , the Assembly Committee recommended to the State Government to stop the application of Part IX A (Municipalities ) of the Constitution of India to Nagaland .
8. Without hearing the women in Nagaland, the all men Assembly on 22.09.2012 passed a Resolution against Women Reservation in Municipal and Town Councils without explaining how “Social practice of Nagas ” were adversely affected by women reservation provisions in the Constitution of India.
9. All these past years , those Leaders who have been protesting against Women Reservation in the guise of Naga Customary Law being affected, did not consider their duty to explain to the people of the State how the Naga Customary Law remains unaffected by (1) St/Sc reservation, (2) the process of elections , unknown to the Nagas in their customary world (3) The administration of Municipal and Town Councils through Administrators for all these years, which is a serious breach of Naga Customary Law. The political leaders under whose nose, the battle against women and women reservation was being organised, owe answers to these questions to the Naga public-both men and women.
10. Little did those Political masters realise that Nagaland was exempted from Part IX (Panchayats) of the Constitution, not because it was an Article 371 A (1)(a)State. No such reference is found neither in their statements of objects or reasons nor in the debates on the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Bill . The fact that Nagaland was exempted from Part IX of the Constitution was not because it is an Article 371 A(1) (a) State, but exempted because of the existence of a traditional village administration system at the grass root level, better than the village administration system prescribed by Part IX of the Constitution of India. Along with Nagaland for the same reason, Meghalaya and Mizoram were also exempted by Article 243(M) of the Constitution of India. Thus, the exemption of Nagaland , Meghalaya and Mizoram has nothing to do with Article 371 A, but due to the reason as aforesaid.
11. On the other hand, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram were not exempted from Municipalities portion of the Constitution of India Part IX(A), since, local self Governance in urban area was not a traditional system. Thus, the Constitution of India, prescribed uniform structure for urban local bodies all over India including Nagaland and other North-East States. Under Article 243(P)(d)of the Constitution , the Governor demarcates Municipal areas .Thus, the ULB’s are the institutions of recent origin and are not connectable to traditions , customs etc. Likewise, it has never been a social practice of Nagas to have or not to have a Municipality or a Town council. It is thus, a constitutionally structured local self governance in urban areas. Part IX(A) of the Constitution by Article 243X, provides Nagaland powers to levy taxes. Thus, it is the State Assembly , which has to ensure that the principles of Article 371 A(1)(a) are satisfied, while enacting provisions in the State Act. Part IX(A) of the Constitution do not impinge upon any provision in Article 371(A)(1)(a), as the advocates of anti woman reservation make us believe.
12. We are of the considered view, that woman being more than equal in numbers in the size of the electorate at all levels in Naga society, do feel that 33% reservation only aims to translate to full fruition the very idea of gender equity under the Naga Customary Law and the Constitutional provision of Part IX(A) Municipalities of the Constitution of India and do not infringe upon the social practices of the Nagas . On the other hand , it give a fillip to the realisation of gender equity under the customs of Nagas into a workable reality , which has been missing for all these decades.
13. The articulation of the State Government , that 33% woman reservation issue militates against Article 371 A(1)(a) has no taker in the High Court and even in the Supreme Court . While the High Court admonished the State for not providing woman reservation consequent to which the State enacted the Woman reservation provisions in the State Act 2006, the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the High Court (Division Bench) order dated 31,07,2012, which wanted the State to examine the Act qua Naga Customs .With the stay imposed by the Supreme Court on 05.04.2016, even the veneer of woman reservation being further examined in the backdrop of Naga Customs by the State Government/Assembly got completely erased. There is thus, no more defence available to the State for denying women reservation on the ostensible pretext of protecting Naga Customs.
14. Those who publish their communiqués in the newspapers against women reservation must come out clearly whether they stand for women or against women, instead of training their guns against women on the shoulders of various Organisations . By this time, they should come to know that women’s representatives are found elsewhere and not in many Tribal Hohos.
15. We take this occasion to condemn the double speak of some leaders who first enacted women reservation in the state and made a U-turn for more than a decade ,depriving women of their rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.
