Recognition of villages in Nagaland requires adherence to established customary practices, necessitating 'No Objection Certificates' and compliance with the prescribed procedures outlined in the relevant Office Memoranda.

JUDGMENT :

J.B. PARDIWALA, J.

For the convenience of exposition, this judgment is divided into the following parts:

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises from the Judgment and Order passed by the High Court of Gauhati, Kohima Bench in Writ Appeal No. 6(K) of 2015 dated 07.10.2015 (hereinafter the “impugned decision”) by which the High Court affirmed the Judgment and Order passed by the Single Judge in Writ Petition (C) No. 65(K) of 2014 directing the State authorities to take steps for the issuance of formal orders for the recognition of the respondent no. 1 village within a period of three months. The said period was however, extended by another four months subsequently.

(A) FACTUAL MATRIX

3. Land is one of the priceless assets for the people of Nagaland and forms an inalienable part of their identity and life.¹ [A. NSHOGA, TRADITIONAL NAGA VILLAGE SYSTEM AND ITS TRANSFORMATION 87 (Anshah Publishing House 2009)] The landholding system in Nagaland differs slightly from the rest of the States and is especially characterized by its non-cadastral nature. Each district, more or less, is occupied by a predominant concentration of one major tribe and other sub-tribes with distinct socio-cultural and linguistic characteristics, and therefore, the different districts of the State are demarcated primarily on the basis of the inhabitation patterns of a specific tribe or tribes.² [LANUSASHI LONGKUMER ET. AL., STATUS OF ADIVASIS/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES LAND SERIES - 6: NAGALAND 20 (Aakar Books 2012)] Land is either owned communally by a clan or village or, by individuals and a new village is formed only within the community land which is owned by its inhabitants. The formation of villages and its recognition is also extensively rooted in customary traditions and practices. It is the case of the appellant that since the establishment and recognition of a new village on the ancestral land of another village results in the transfer of ownership of the said land to the newly created village, the prevailing custom requires the village ancestrally owning such land to accord their consent by way of a ‘No Objection Certificate’ to the new village which is sought to be established on their land.

4. The aforesaid custom is said to have been recognized in the O.M. dated 22.03.1996 issued by the State of Nagaland which lays down several criteria for the recognition of villages. The relevant portions of the same read as follows:

“Government of Nagaland

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