New Delhi, July 14: The Supreme Court today allowed two weeks time to the Assam government to reply to a petition filed by Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) seeking setting aside of a tripartite memorandum of settlement between Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT), Union government and the state. State advocate general A K Phukan and counsel Krishna Sharma sought and were granted two weeks time by a bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Arijit Pasayat.
The bench also made BLT a party in the matter and directed hearing of the petition along with another filed earlier by Bodoland Autonomous Boundary Protection Association (BABPA) challenging the state government notification of 1999 demarcating the area of BAC. The apex court on April 17 had admitted for hearing a petition filed by BAC seeking quashing of the much hyped tripartite settlement seeking to create Bodo Territorial Council (BTC).
Challenging the legality and constitutional validity of the February 2003 accord, BAC said the Centre and the state governments entered into an agreement with a small terrorist group of few Bodos who have surrendered to the government and have no representative character among the people of Bodoland. BABPA had challenged the 1999 notification on the ground that the Assam government had excluded 347 villages from the boundary of Bodoland Autonomous Area. Bureau Report