LPCs cannot be issued in respect of community land, especially when it is covered under Jhum cultivation, as per the provisions of the Balipara, Tirap, Sadiya, Frontier tract Jhum Land Regulation, 1947 and the Arunachal Pradesh (Land Settlement and Records) Act 2000.

Nature of right of an individual over community land belonging to the community of the State and whether the nature, character and status of such community land so long maintained by the community since time immemorial is to be respected and maintained and/or protected, is the basis of dispute raised in this writ petition.

"Land is the habitation of man, the store house upon which he must depend for all he needs, the material to which his labour must be applied for the supply of all his desires; for even the light of the sun enjoyed, or any of the forces of nature utilized, without the use of land on its products. On the land we are born, from it we live, to it we return again-children of the soil as truly as is the blade of grass or the flower of the field. Take away from man all that belongs to land, and he is but a disembodied spirit" (Henry George Progress and Poverty New York 1921 P. 211), There are the philosophical Methods to which the Adis of Arunachal Pradesh adhrere to relating to the concept attached to land.

2. Gaon Burah of Remi and Poblung village respectively under Dambuk area of the Lower Dibang Valley District are the petitioners of this writ petition who has taken up the cause of the inhabitants of different villages on Dambuk area. The common grievance highlighted by the petitioners in this writ petition is that they have approached this court for maintaining their traditional right over the community land inherited from their ancestors and is occupying by carrying common cultivation commonly known as Jhum cultivation, since last about one and half century. It is the grievance of the petitioners that over some of the parts of their community land the private respondents with the aid and assistance of the official respondents are trying to obtain Land Possession Certificate (for short "LPC") in their favour, thereby curving out those area as their individual land.

3. The petitioners have pleaded interalia that the various villages under Dambuk area like Poblung, Tapat, Remi Yapgo and new Poblung are inhabited by Adi tribe (comprising Pasi, Padam, Millang, Kimkar and Dalbing). Apart from these Adi villages, the inhabitants of Kapang and Sirang villages belonging to IDU Mishmi tribe, which is also locally known as MIDI, migrated to Dambuk area after the great earthquakeof 1950. Most of the residents of these two villages have migrated during the period 1970 to 1990 and prior to 1997 no IDU Mishmi except late Nyapak Linggj had settled at Dambuk villages.

4. Dambuk village was established in the year 1860 which is about 15x10 Sq. KM and the people of the Dambuk village are occupying the entire land from the date of the settlement of villages till date. A major part of the land is used for the purpose of Jhum cultivation which is a well regulated traditional system of cultivation on rotational basis. The areas under Jhum cultivation are divided into 33 Nos of blocks, which are locally known as "Patats". In these blocks the entire population of the village undertake the Jhum cultivation. It is the system of these Patats that there are specific plots of land clearly demarked by traditional Stone Filler, known as Lisik Stone Piller, Taba, Sbdok, put for the purpose of identifying one plot to avoid any dispute or encroachment.

5. It is also pleaded that in the first Anglo British War of 1894 which was fought after three decades of the settlement of the Dambuk village on 20th January, 1894, the expedition force of the British led by Captain R.M.Maxwell, the Commandant of the Lakhimpur Military Police accompanied by Mr. J.F.Needham as Political Officer advanced to Dambuk but the people of Dambuk strongly resisted and fought against the British force. After the war is over the people erected Stockade near the villages, which is still in existence and this War is popularly known as Mij om Mimak (Needham War). At that period no IDU villages existed near Dambuk and Bomjir area.

6. While the Adi and IDU people of th