Any judgement detrimental to traditional rights of Nagas not acceptable: UNTABA

United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) today reiterated never to accept any judgment detrimental to the traditional, historical and political rights of the Naga people but pursue vigorously the issue as per the representation submitted to the Prime Minister of India on November 10, 2014.
UNTABA chairman Hukavi T Yeputhomi and the joint secretary Yanger Sangtam have issued the statement following the recent observation made by the honorable Supreme Court on January 14, 2015, on the Suit No. 2 of 1988 in the border dispute between Assam and Nagaland. UNTABA said the issue needs to be seriously considered and pursued by the Government of Nagaland with all the available legal resources at its disposal.
It said the Civil Suit filed by the Government of Assam way back in 1988 was not an issue that could be settled by the honorable Court judgment because it is basically a political problem that needs political decision as rightly observed by the honorable Court on December 3, 2014.
It also said the litigation process that has been pending for more than 27 years now is totally unconstitutional because it is by-passing the Constitutional Provisions of Article 3 & 4 of the Constitution of India which stipulates that an Inter-State boundary demarcation can only be undertaken by the parliament alone.
It said the inter-State boundary demarcation between Assam and Nagaland have to be settled according to the ‘Sixteen Point Agreement’ Point No. 12 & 13 made between the then Naga Peoples’ Council and the Government of Independent India way back in 1960 because the posterity of the Naga people would never forgive the acceptance of less than this Agreement.
It said the Civil Suit covers only some few square miles in the bifurcated reserved forests of Diphu, Nambor, Rengma, Kakadanga, Desoi, Tiru, Geleki, Doyang and Abhaypur, whereas the whole traditional, historical and political Naga lands covers an area of approximately more than 4974.16 square miles since April 18, 1841, when the first Rengma Naga Hills was created by the then British Imperial Government of India under Section Nos. 79 & 80 and subsequently the first Administrative  Headquarter of Naga Hills Agency at Asoloo in 1854.
Going by the present trend of litigation and arbitration process and the lack of political will of the present dispensation in the Government of Nagaland, UNTABA further stated that the likelihood of the outcome would never righted the historical wrong committed to the Naga people of systematically transferring large track of Naga’s land to the then Assam Province by the British Imperial Government of India.