BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL

Subject: Polity

Context: More than 70% of the 1,365,207 voters turned out for the first phase of the elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Concept:

• Bodoland Territorial Council is an autonomous region in the state of Assam in India.
• It is made up of four districts (Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri) on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The area under the jurisdiction of BTC, formed under the 2003 Accord, was called the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD).
• BTC is an area governed under the 6th schedule. However, BTC is an exception to the constitutional provision under the 6th schedule.
• As it can constitute up to 46 members out of which 40 are elected.
• Of these 40 seats, 35 are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and non-tribal communities, five are unreserved and the rest six are nominated by the governor from underrepresented communities of the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD).
• Thus, the creation of the BTC can be seen as a new experiment of territorial autonomy under the Sixth Schedule.

Sixth Schedule

• The Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, according to Article 244 of the Indian Constitution.
• It seeks to safeguard the rights of the tribal population through the formation of Autonomous District Councils (ADC).
• ADCs are bodies representing a district to which the Constitution has given varying degrees of autonomy within the state legislature.
• The governors of these states are empowered to reorganize boundaries of the tribal areas.
• In simpler terms, she or he can choose to include or exclude any area, increase or decrease the boundaries and unite two or more autonomous districts into one.
• They can also alter or change the names of autonomous regions without separate legislation.

Autonomous districts and regional councils

• The ADCs are empowered with civil and judicial powers can constitute village courts within their jurisdiction to hear the trial of cases involving the tribes.
• Governors of states that fall under the Sixth Schedule specify the jurisdiction of high courts for each of these cases.
• Along with ADCs, the Sixth Schedule also provides for separate Regional Councils for each area constituted as an autonomous region.
• In all, there are 10 areas in the Northeast that are registered as autonomous districts – three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura.
• These regions are named as district council of (name of district) and regional council of (name of region).
• Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four are nominated by the governor and the rest via elections. All of them remain in power for a term of five years.