Autonomous District Council

Autonomous District Council

Subject – Polity

Context – Lone BJP member left in Mizoram’s tribal Chakma Autonomous District Council.

Concept –

• The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India allows for the formation of autonomous administrative divisions which have been given autonomy within their respective states.
• Most of these autonomous district councils are located in North East India but two are in Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory.
• Presently, 10 Autonomous Councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura are formed by virtue of the Sixth Schedulewith the rest being formed as a result of other legislation.
• The governor is empowered to organise and re-organise the autonomousdistricts. Thus, he can increase or decrease their areas or change theirnames or define their boundaries and so on.
• If there are different tribes in an autonomous district, the governor candivide the district into several autonomous regions.
• Each autonomous district has a district council consisting of 30 members, of whom four are nominated by the governor and the remaining 26 are elected on the basis of adult franchise.
• The elected members hold office for a term of five years (unless the council is dissolved earlier) and nominated members hold office during the pleasure of the governor.
• Each autonomous region also has a separate regional council.
• The district and regional councils administer the areas under their jurisdiction. They can make laws on certain specified matters like land, forests, canal water, shifting cultivation, village administration, inheritance of property, marriage and divorce, social customs and so on.
• But all such laws require the assent of the governnor.
• The district and regional councils within their territorial jurisdictions can constitute village councils or courts for trial of suits and cases between the tribes. They hear appeals from them.
• The jurisdiction of high court over these suits and cases is specified by the governor.
• The district council can establish, construct or manage primary schools, dispensaries, markets, ferries, fisheries, roads and so on in the district. It can also make regulations for the control of money lending and trading bynon-tribals. But such regulations require the assent of the governor.
• The district and regional councils are empowered to assess and collect land revenue and to impose certain specified taxes.
• The acts of Parliament or the state legislature do not apply to autonomous districts and autonomous regions or apply with specified modifications and exceptions.